Yaniya Lee
My thesis situates recent black visual arts practices in the context of exhibition practices and art history. I undertake a content analysis of 10 years of black visual arts reviews in FUSE Magazine and perform a close read of Tau Lewis’ 2017 exhibition cyphers, tissues, blizzards, exile. Through the FUSE content analysis, I am able to explore how an artist’s gender and race influence if and how black arts are discussed in a Canadian context. In my exploration of Lewis, I find that in the exhibition, she—a black woman artist—uses opacity as an aesthetic strategy to avoid presenting her work in a traditional, consumable way. In both of these chapters, the ongoing absented presence of blackness in Canada frames my approach to the case studies.
I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Katherine McKittrick. An attentiveness to the beauty of black life, the tenor of our absences, and an ability to see differently are some of the ways in which my research and thinking have been transformed while working with her. Katherine is beyond rigorous and I have learned not only from what she says, and writes, but also from what she does not say, or write.
I would like to thank Dr. Beverley Mullings, my second reader, and Dr. Barrington Walker. Their insightful comments and suggestions helped me in the final stages of this research.
I would like to thank Grace for being there to talk through my ideas and to read through my work, and my mom, Dzian, for an almost blind trust in my ability to succeed. I am thankful to my friends—Yasmine, Brett, Nat, Chris and Sophie—for believing in me and for being patient and supportive as I worked on this dissertation.
And a very special thanks to Terrie Easter Sheen, for always knowing what to do.