Kekeli Looking at Things

Kekeli Looking at Things This is a research account of stuff I'm looking at...but curated of course, for your insight, research, and inspiration

Kajahl’s () work explores a more European depiction of the blackamoor figure—who still retains an air of nobility, divor...
11/12/2020

Kajahl’s () work explores a more European depiction of the blackamoor figure—who still retains an air of nobility, divorced from American constructions of race and ethnicity.

Using that as a base for his paintings, Kajahl acts as a “court painter” for these bejeweled figures, who are cast as rulers, dignitaries, alchemists, astronomers and deities.

The blackamoor as a decorative object entered the American consciousness by the 20th Century as American designers embra...
11/11/2020

The blackamoor as a decorative object entered the American consciousness by the 20th Century as American designers embraced and appropriated the neo-Baroque movement. The adoption of these figures didn’t come with the same visions of the exotic Black body, the Moor or the North African.⠀
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Within the racial politics of the US, the servile component of the blackamoor took on a greater role, where a history of mammy dolls and blackface provided ground for a uniquely American projection of racial domination.

The blackamoor is typically male, depicted with a head covering, usually a turban and covered in rich jewels and gold le...
11/10/2020

The blackamoor is typically male, depicted with a head covering, usually a turban and covered in rich jewels and gold leaf. They are also typically enameled, carved from ebony or painted black to better contrast the bright colors of the embellishments adorned on them. Interestingly, blackamoors are often fetishized or placed in positions of servitude.⠀
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However, in the work of Kajahl (), the blackamoor is reimagined as an elite class of nobility, shedding any fantasy of racial conquest imagined by European subjects.

“Royal Specter” is an exhibition of paintings by artist Kajahl Benes () at Monique Meloche () in Chicago. The works are ...
11/09/2020

“Royal Specter” is an exhibition of paintings by artist Kajahl Benes () at Monique Meloche () in Chicago. The works are painterly assemblages whose primary subjects are blackamoors—stylized Black figures that were part of a European style formed in the early Modern period.⠀
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Blackamoors are often found in sculpture, jewelry, furniture, and the decorative arts, where artists created fantastical images of North African and/or Muslim “others.”⠀
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In “Royal Specter,” Kajahl reimagines the image of the blackamoor through assemblage—a process where he creates a fantasy narrative culled from images of warriors, scholars, scientists, and oracles found in historical archives. Presented in a two dimensional plane, Kajahl hybridizes time periods, locations, and culture—making “Royal Specter” a site for anachronism and speculative fiction.

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