Deconstructing Race and Pissing off Giuliani

Ren�e Cox Discusses Her Controversial Photography

By Russel Gottwaldt

Renee Cox is most famous for pissing off New York City's Rudolph Giuliani. Her work attacks stereotypes and misconceptions of blacks and is best characterized by her portraits of black men and women assuming classic Roman and Renaissance poses, often directly parodying famous European paintings. Cox recently spoke at SAIC about the themes and controversies surrounding her work as a part of the Visiting Artists Program lecture series "Deconstructing God."

Cox's work raises eyebrows and makes national headlines. Her photograph "Yo Mama's Last Supper," a remake of Leonardo DaVinci's "The Last Supper," features the artist standing nude at the head of the table among black men. The work was deemed "anti-Catholic" by former New York City Mayor Giuliani two years ago and sparked the failed attempt to form a "Decency Committee" in NYC, which would have dictated what could and could not be exhibited in public institutions.

Renee Cox's work is prone to spark controversy, which she uses to her advantage. Her work has less to do with deconstructing God than with deconstructing the way we view religious or classic European artwork. By choosing to tamper with respected and elite imagery, she attracts national attention. The Daily News proclaimed "YO MAMA RIPS RUDY" after her Committed to the Image: Contemporary Black Photographers exhibition with 94 other artists at The Brooklyn Museum of Art.

Working as a fashion photographer for ten years before venturing into the public art sphere has obviously taught Cox to present her work in the most charismatic, straightforward, and media-savvy way possible. Which raises some questions: Does all this press eclipse the integrity of her work? Does her audience respect these images as contemporary photography solely because of her ability to push the right, socially sensitive, buttons? Is all the controversy just a distraction from mediocre concepts and average work?

Cox stated that the controversy surrounding the content of her imagery has less to do with blasphemy and anti-Christianity and more to do with deep-seated prejudice. It's not the liberal use of her naked body in her images that upsets people, she claims, it's the underlying theme of African-American empowerment. After all, most classic Greek and Roman imagery freely uses nudity. Cox said that in Renaissance murals and cathedrals, "[There are] religious images with penises and tits all flung up on the ceiling." According to Cox, what sets her imagery apart is that "there is a black woman who has dared to put herself at the head of the table."

One such example is "Olympia's Boys," a 14-foot, four-panel C-Print of Cox sprawled on a couch, likening herself to the model in Manet's "Olympia" (and replacing the slave with two young men, who also happen to be her real-life sons). Cox's photograph empowers and sexualizes black females -- two qualities that the original discourages with its depiction of an black servant.

Much of Renee Cox's work combats the misrepresentation and stereotypes that she says history and the American media perpetuate. "Hot and Taut" features a side profile view of the artist with bulbous, prosthetic breasts and buttocks -- a play on ethnic photographs of the 19th century (when explorers would photograph sick or deformed African women and present this imagery to Westerners as what normal Africans looked like).

Cox's recurring character Raje, a comic book-heroine dressed in Rastafarian clothing, is often used to address and crush prejudice in popular culture. Loosely based on Wonder Woman's lesser-known, black Amazon sister Nubia, Raje has been depicted liberating Uncle Ben and Aunt Jemima from their boxes, using attractive male and female models to represent the proud, re-sexualized versions of their countertop counterparts, and appearing in her own promotional music video. "The art world is cute, but there is a bigger world out there," says Cox, in hopes that her efforts to make Raje known will educate young, black Americans about their culture and undo damage caused by mainstream media.

Cox stated during the lecture that the black community has made plenty of socially responsible and respectable Hollywood movies, but these are seldom the kinds of movies that America chooses to export. She stated that the failure to export a healthy black image is programming potential U.S. citizens to be prejudiced even before they immigrate into the country. "Our country exports movies and TV shows depicting blacks as violent stereotypes, and all these people come here and throw that onto us."

Another pet peeve of Cox's is the ill-conceived notion that minorities make up all of the people on welfare. "Why is it than when the New York Times does an article about welfare, they always have some big, black mama holding a baby on the cover?" Cox cited Charles Murry's research in The Bell Curve that proved whites make up the majority of people on welfare (a fact that she used in a series of posters posted up in bus terminals around New York).

Cox said, "That's why I love Jerry Springer. It shows that there are just as many trashy white people out there." She added jokingly, "I don't want to sound like the angry black lady. I like white people a lot -- I'm married to one."

Joking aside, calling Cox's work controversial may be an understatement. SAIC's Visiting Artist director Romi Crawford announced before the lecture that the decision to print Cox's infamous "Yo Mama's Last Supper" on the Visiting Artists Program flyers was immediately met with mail and telephone complaints.

Image: "Yo Mama's Last Supper" by Renee Cox. Courtesy of the Robert Miller Gallery.