Trafficking in the unfamiliar: writing black and Pierre Mukeba
Being black and African and Australian and an artist is a complicated space to live in. It’s like being caught in a rip in between competing worlds. The dislocation can do your head in. It can also be a blessing, especially if you’re open to a certain playfulness, to trying to confront and subvert historical representations of blackness. But even here, as you grapple with the relationship between blackness and its image, complications are never far away. They creep up on you, often coming in the form of questions—I read as black so must I perform blackness?
