Weekly Selfie 6: Vee

Fight, flight, freeze or fawn, Vee Hughes 2024

 “She introduces a sense of decline or disre­gard by replicating, along the bottom of several walls, the stain of a flood mark or the sooty grime that settles on decrepit buildings. The marks are partially inspired by the ghostly traces of Hurricane Katrina—a poignant reminder of inhuman neglect and ruin—that she encountered in 2008 as a participant in Prospect.1 in New Orleans, and they create a dramatic shading effect of the kind Mutu favors at the edges of many of her works.”

After the recent hurricanes I became more interested in hurricane Katrina and ended up watching the docuseries ‘When the Levees broke’. It tells the full story of the horrific repercussions of the hurricane. How the majority of the deaths and destruction was not from the hurricane itself, but the pure neglect of the people and properties in New Orleans that was directly caused by racism and classism. This work was a beautiful and somber commentary on the event and it was interesting to hear that she experienced it first hand which lends so much further insight into her art. 

“Two multipart works present a comical cast of characters. Forensic Forms (2004) comprises 10 medium-­size depictions of bizarre creatures with such quirks as walleyes, gaping mouths, a blaze of black glittery hair and dangling legs like braids.”

Before even reading further into this piece, it immediately reminded me of a commentary on the pseudoscience of phrenology. This was a so-called science that justified racism and eugenics by creating entirely false results pertaining to the bones and bodies of black people. These ‘studies’ compared black people to animals and were used to justify slavery and racism on the grounds that they believed this proved that black people were not human.