> rent-a-negro.com
::
Monday, May 05, 2003 ::
Conceptual artist damali ayo recently launched the web project
Rent-a-Negro;
an art piece critiquing the exoticization of black culture. The
net project presents the 'negro' available for diverse social
occasions. Based on ayo's project, one could say that racism has
now become part of capitalism as yet another efficient form of
production.
Rent-a-Negro critiques racial issues in a similar way as Keith
+ Mendi Obadike's The Interaction of Coloreds; where 'color' is
questioned in terms of marketing efficiency. Obadike's net project,
like Ayo's, shows that, thanks to technology, bigotry can be suspended,
thus enabling a supossed disinterested selling pitch to come forward.
The only downside of Rent-a-Negro would be its lack of documentation.
As a conceptual piece, the necessity to adopt naturalized forms
of internet marketing become vital in order to produce an excess
of meaning that would open up the object of contemplation for
critique. This is something that Keith + Mendi Obadike's project
does pull off by presenting different skin colors as a way of
measuring selling (racial) efficiency.
ayo's piece has caused quite a stir in the rhizome list, as many
netizens have posted their opinions about racism. Even though
rhizome is not open for everyone to read, I will here provide
the link to the thread, in order to enable some of you to further
consider the complexity of our current state of diversity.
