Barbara Kruger, You are not yourself, 1981.
In class we talked about the fragmented image of the self that this image presents with its broken reflection. We discussed the ways in which individuals are often defined not only by their own actions, thoughts or behaviors, but by definitions placed on them by parents, friends, society, culture, and history. This is perhaps most true in American culture when it comes to race, ethnicity, and gender.
So, if an individual wants to escape the definitions placed on her by history, she must create a "counter-hegemonic" narrative, that goes against the dominant stories of history and culture.
We looked at Carrie Mae Weems' Black Woman with Chicken (below) as an example of an artist taking on a stereotype and refusing to allow it to define her identity.
We talked about this maxim from Audre Lorde: "The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House."
The master here is dominant culture and history.
Lorde suggests that one cannot tear down the fictions of dominant history by using the same tools (the same language, expectations, references, etc.). Instead one needs to develop new ways of communicating and storytelling to dismantle dominant narratives and create a counter hegemonic one.
