Mama, I Thought Only Black People Were Bad (1995)
Meet the artist, sculptor, photographer, videographer, and eroticist, Renèe Cox.
Renèe? More like Renèe-ked. She’s so sexciting.
But seriously, if there is one artist that makes me want to ditch the six items thing and walk around uncovered for the next year, it’s her. I think I could get away with it as long as I stayed in the Castro.
Renee has made a career out of showcasing herself. The evidence lies below in a body of work that is…well, her body. If I am to believe the write up on her website, she is one of the most controversial black female artists working today. Take Yo Mama’s Last Supper. It’s her version of The Last Supper, by Leonardo Da Vinci, ‘cept all the apostles are black save Judas. Oh, and she’s Jesus…and she’s naked.
Yo Mama’s Last Supper (1996)
While we’re talkin ’bout Yo Mama…
Young Yo Mama (1979)
Yo Mama at Home (1992)
Yo Mama (1993)
Yo Mama the Sequel (1996)
Yo Mamadonna and Child (1994)
Her tribute to Lil’ Sarah:
HOTT-EN-TOT (1994)
From some website:
In this futuristic reinterpretation of the Hottentot Venus, Renee Valerie Cox directly inserts her own body into the historical matrix of Western representations that configured black female sexuality. In the photograph Cox’s body is transformed, recalling the Hottentot Venus, with the addition of protruding metallic breasts and an accompanying metal butt extension. The white strings that delicately hold these metallic body parts in place with bow, seem to emphasize the artists’ complex and ambivalent relationships to representations of black female sexuality. Cox wears the metallic appendages like a costume or disguise, but her own nude body is simultaneously revealed to the viewer. She stands in profile emphasizing her bodily dimensions, hands akimbo, and stares directly at the viewer.
Liberty in the South Bronx (1992)
These are awesome for many reasons, but especially cause it looks like she made them after she had had her first child (can you spot the scar?). I heard she lifted the chains of oppression for two hours a day to get that post-baby body.
Do or Die (1992)
The Colonization of White People/The In Laws (1996)
David (1994)
Liberation of Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben (1998)
Mama, I Thought Only Black People Were Bad (1995)
Click The Kiss. Click The Kiss. Click The Kiss.
Love and Enjoy.
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