Abstract

My studio-based inquiry critically examines my perceptions regarding aspects of my mixed black and white identity. My artwork was informed by a systematic practice of journaling, sketching, photo-documentation, and reflection. I examined the racialized categories that I identify with and that others use to identify me. I made links with critical reflection on concepts related to race related literature, and looked at the work of other artists dealing with similar themes and materials to mine. In the process of using different materials to make the artwork, I gained insight regarding how racialized categories – “black,” “white,” “bi-racial,” “multiracial” – may function to perpetuate negative stereotyping, mainly through fixed conceptions of identity and misconceptions about scientific notions of race. The purpose of my thesis is to maintain dialogue on race-related issues, especially at a time in our society when people sometimes believe that such things are a thing of the past and that one’s skin colour no longer matters like it used to. My reflections about my mixed identity, as detailed through my art-making, show that problems concerning race and the concepts associated with them still need to be critically examined. Applied in a multicultural art education context, a critical approach in teaching and learning should involve, or continue to involve students’ reflections on their own experiences in their work, as well as others, through inclusion of a diverse range of artists that reflect the contributions of many, rather than a select few, in the fine arts.