"I believe there is a power in acknowledging your hypervisibility and trying to subvert it by performing in ways that are not expected and, at times, not respected. It’s a way to corrupt whatever system you are being targeted by.
 —Tschabalala Self 

Confronting perceptions of the marginalisation and overt fetishization of the Black female body, Tschabalala Self is best known for her large-scale figurative mixed-media paintings, reaffirming what it means to be a Black woman in society. Asserting femininity in an act of defiant bodily self-expression, this striking and suggestive pose of a Black woman sat against a vibrant black and pink background in Daydream, rebels against the eroticised impositions of the female body, pertinently emphasised by the multitude of hands attempting to touch the figure. Aware that her paintings carry the weight of political and social implications on the surveillance and restrictions of black bodies, Self starts provocative conversations around the construction of Black identities in an attempt to raise dialogues over inclusivity and awareness. At its most direct, Self’s textile-based works emphasise that ‘you can’t fully acknowledge someone’s humanity unless you acknowledge every aspect of their humanity,’ a point emphatically addressed in Daydream.ⁱ

 

Reclaiming the Male Gaze

 

In her quest to tear down racial and gendered hierarchies, Self’s body of work acknowledges the stigmas entrenched within the portrayal of Black female bodies throughout history and the history of art. In contrast to works that have sought to objectify the Black female body as an exoticised other, Self aims to rewrite these fetishized narratives by presenting the liberation of women in sexually empowered poses. Whilst Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, outraged audiences in its combination of sexual explicitness and so-called ‘primitivist’ appropriation of the formal qualities of African masks, Self reclaims these stylistic tropes by over-exaggerating the features in her figures to instead celebrate their physicality and race. Reclaiming the objectifying white male gaze in these materially complex works, Self transforms the female body into a site of self-fashioning and infinite possibility. Reimaging the forms and functions of the female nude, the figure at the centre of Daydream oversteps boundaries: thematically in its presentation of a powerfully self-possessed nude; stylistically in her highly effective use of fabric and textiles; and even spatially as her direct gaze and overhanging feet break with the boundaries imposed by the canvas itself. 

 

 

A Voice for Black Women

 

In her commitment to the intersecting questions of gender, race, and representation, Self belongs to a community of contemporary artists including Mickalene Thomas and Deborah Roberts who employ non-traditional materials as a means of emphasising the constructed nature of identity and as a challenge to conventional notions of beauty. Bringing together textiles, fabric, and alternative modes of making, Self’s practice speaks poetically to the complexity of the social issues raised by her work. Strikingly autobiographic, Self’s use of fabric also engages directly with the legacy of artists such as Faith Ringgold, her highly textured paintings recalling the powerful combination of personal narrative, history, and social politics evident in the story quilts produced by Ringgold. Presenting a radical challenge to the male gaze, Self eradicates shame and demands that her figures occupy space. Amplifying Black female voices who have fallen through the cracks throughout history and reinvigorating discussions around female sexuality, as the artist states, ‘the goal is to allow for there to be better understanding: more diversity and understanding for the Black body. New ways of understanding.’ⁱⁱ   Significantly, Daydream was included in Self's 2017 exhibition with Parasol Unit in London, her first major exhibition in the United Kingdom, and a powerful presentation of the ideas at the centre of her practice. 

 

 

Collector’s Digest

 

• Born in 1990, Harlem, USA, Tschabalala Self lives and works in the New York tri state area. Represented by Pilar Corrias her most recent forthcoming exhibition opening this October at the gallery, Homebody, celebrates her new body of work centred around bodies in domestic spaces.

 

• Having exhibited works in major international art centres including London, New York, Berlin, and Los Angeles, Tschabalala Self was the subject of a major solo exhibition in 2020 – her largest to date – at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, Boston. Her work was recently included in the group exhibition Women and Change at the Arken Museum in Denmark and in The Condition of Being Addressable at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in Los Angeles. The present work was included in her 2017 solo presentation with Parasol Unit in London. 

 

• Examples of her work can be found in the collections of the Rubell Museum, Miami, the Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, as well as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, and Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. New York institutions include the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the New Museum.

 

ⁱ Tschabalala Self quoted in Jason Parham, ‘The Hypervisible Black Women of Tschabalala Self’s world’, Fader, April 2017, online.
ⁱⁱ Tschabalala Self quoted in Jason Parham, ‘The Hypervisible Black Women of Tschabalala Self’s world’, Fader, April 2017, online.