Rachel Chapman @ CSU Pueblo

                 Darby English’s “How to See a Work of Art in Total Darkness” exposes how convoluted the idea of race is. Race is socially construed. Race is based on the treatment done by others that can categorize a person into a difficult class. English also exposes how race has been able to play a key role in how audiences are supposed to interact with art, but mainly how the art industry has kept art created by black artist apart from art created by white artist. Which can only make sense since the idea of race is that people are different from each other based on the amount of melanin in their skin tone. This is a form of segregation that the art industry has been able to implement, and black artist and white artist have also helped to keep this segregation alive. Black artists in a traditional sense this has made art about the mistreatment of the black community that has shaped the formation of the black identit...

  David Hammons, Concerto in BLack and Blue, 2002  In the book’s introduction, “How to See a Work of Art in Total Darkness” by Darby English, express how artwork done by Blacks in America will be regulated by their blackness rather than to their creative processes. Due to racism America has allowed this to happen in all creation of building America and sustaining the country. It is easy for audiences and critics to only see the race of an artist since it is so ingrained into the culture structure. Which leads to artwork done by Blacks to be tagged as Black Art rather than just art.  In English’s introduction he examines the interpretation of David Hammons'  Concerto in Black and Blue . This installation had the audience participate in the artwork. Hammons made the audience members walk around the museum with blue tinted flashlight to cast shadows or illuminate the pathway of the individual holding the flashlight. The description of the installation does not seem to...