Discrit: Black Meme

From the venue:

Join curator, writer, artist Legacy Russell in a discussion on the construct, culture, and material of the “meme” as mapped to black visual culture from 1900 to present day. Using archival media Russell will explore the impact of blackness, black life, and black social death on contemporary conceptions of virality borne in the age of the Internet. Before the lecture, Russell will screen her video essay BLACK MEME (2020).

BLACK MEME (2020) is, in the words of the artist, a “video essay” in an interactive digital space, which explores questions of black visual culture from 1900 to the present day. Through archival media and found footage, Russell explores the construction, culture and material of the “meme” and it’s relationship to blackness, black life, and black social death.

“Memes are not neutral. The labor enacted through black meme culture raises questions about subjectivity, personhood, and the ever-complicated fault lines of race, class, and gender performed both on- and offline. I want to talk about the economy and engine of this and perhaps push further a discussion about how we can hold ourselves accountable to how this material is produced and circulated.”