Mélinda Pierre-Paul Cardinal
This thesis explores the paradox of what it means to live Blackness within a world founded upon its destruction through a critical art historical analysis of Jamaican-Canadian artist Tau Lewis’ exhibition Triumphant Alliance of the Ubiquitous Blossoms of Incarnate Souls (T.A.U.B.I.S.) (2020). Adopting a Black feminist framework rooted in methods of opacity, I interrogate the racist visual, cultural, and social economies that have continuously objectified and dehumanized Black people since the transatlantic slave trade. In doing so, I illuminate how Lewis’ work navigates structures of anti-Black violence and reimagines Black diasporic life beyond white supremacist capitalist patriarchal impositions of negation. Drawing from Black studies scholar Saidiya Hartman’s notion of the afterlife of slavery, I establish Lewis’ work within a larger legacy of Black diasporic practices of Black refusal, care, relation, and radical imagination that grapples towards liberatory ends. At the same time, I consider how T.A.U.B.I.S.’ interdisciplinary nature—which includes poetry, speculative fiction, and hand-sewn textile sculptures which represent imagined Black motherly ancestors—emerges as an expansive site of Black diasporic possibility that transcends reductivist constructs of biological determinism. Ultimately, this thesis argues that with T.A.U.B.I.S., Lewis not only tends to present-day Black diasporic subjectivities, but further prompts vital strategies for knowing and living Blackness otherwise in the still unfolding aftermaths of slavery.
This thesis would not have been possible without the generosity, patience, and care of many. I must first acknowledge my gratitude for having lived and conducted research on the unceded territory of the Kanien’kehá:ka, known as Tiohtià:ke to the Haudenosaunee, Mooniyang to the Anishinaabeg, and Montréal to many others. As a researcher of Haitian-Canadian descent, I find myself personally invested in dismantling the ongoing projects of colonialism and slavery across Turtle Island, in Ayiti, and beyond. I must acknowledge as well my gratitude to my ancestors who survived the unsurvivable so that I may be here to honor their sacrifices.
I owe my deepest thanks to my co-supervisors Dr. May Chew and Dr. Joana Joachim for their guidance, generosity, and critical insights which saw me through the many highs and lows of writing this thesis. Long before applying for my MA, Dr. Chew showed enthusiastic support for my research, providing me with a sense of courage that has led me to this very moment. I am grateful for her patience, kindness, and intellectual rigor—all of which have been invaluable to my scholarly and personal growth. I am equally grateful to have benefited from the extensive knowledge, wisdom, and care that Dr. Joachim has generously shared with me inside and outside of the classroom. With all my respect and admiration: this thesis would be nothing without the path she continues to pave through her Black feminist pedagogy and scholarship.
I owe a heartfelt thanks to Dr. Balbir K. Singh, who provided me with encouraging feedback during the final steps of writing this thesis. Over the last two years, Dr. Singh taught me to critically rethink the false dichotomy between art and politics, and for this I am eternally grateful. I must as well acknowledge that my research was supported through grants from Concordia University, the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
I extend my gratitude to my brilliant cohort, colleagues, and professors at Concordia University. A special thanks goes to Roxanne Cornellier, who has been a trusted confidant, an important co-conspirator, and a delightful travel companion. Thanks, too, to Ali Byers, whose intellectual curiosity and critical perspectives have fostered many lively exchanges and collaborative lines of inquiry. I am grateful for having shared tender conversations with Caro DeFrias on the joys and pains of our research and on the importance of critical love and theory. I also owe a hearty thanks to Marcela Torres for providing me with deep-bellied laughter and nurturing when they were most needed.
To my family and friends: thank you for your love, support, and patience through my many absences, research obsessions, and minor existential crises over the last two years. A special thanks goes to my feline companions, Goya and Olive, for their emotional support and for reminding me to enjoy the little things. There are a million ways that I am indebted to Simon Wahl, who believed in me from the very beginning. Thank you for reading and re-reading my work, for dreaming with me, for caring for me, and for your unwavering support throughout the process of writing this thesis. Most importantly, I am indebted to my mother, to whom I owe absolutely everything.
This thesis is dedicated to my mother, Manouchka Pierre-Paul, my grandmother, Félicita Pierre-Paul, my late great-grandmother, Suzanne Lafontant, and to the women who came before us whose names we do not know but whose legacies live on.