Critical studies

  Politics and identity talk   

After our talk on Politics and identity we were asked to find two artists whose work relates to these themes and discuss, when looking at artists exploring identity I've decided to research Hank Willis Thomas and his works entitled I Am. 

"I am a man" is a phrase that Willis adopted from the I am a man sanitation strikes and protests in Memphis in 1968. The sanitation strikes grew into a wider cause of African American men taking to striking and protesting against segregation and racism, using this phrase and signs as an aid. In the US and South Africa is was common that men of colour were referred to as boy rather than a man in insult. This phrasing of the word boy rather than man is demeaning and implies they are less than the person saying it. 

Hank Willis Thomas was born in 1976, only 8 years after the protests had taken place. This fact hit close to home and acted as the catalyst for the whole I Am series he created, influenced by the close history of his location and racial background. He appropriated the text and typeface and even opened it up further adopting other similar phrases exploring these themes like "Aint i a woman", this being a reference Sojourner Truth's speech. This work closely explores the classification of identity influenced by close personal history and social attitudes towards race.