DR. RIKIESHA METZGER
International Community Artist-Philosopher
PHILOSOPHY PAPERS
December 2022
The revolution that is presented in this article is a social and cultural shift that can be experienced through the form of artistic expression. This article discusses why ‘the revolution will not be televised’ since it is more what we witness as it is presented to us through media and technological ‘devices’. I propose we use my concept Black Artistic Thought, defined as the creative thought process of many Black people (whose artwork is based on their lived experiences and used as a cultural representation of their life) to help in our moving towards revolutionary freedom. I suggest that Black Artist Thought is inborn for persons of the African diaspora, and I link its origination in childhood. My thesis is grounded in an argument that makes a clear distinction between Kant’s binding freedom and Eckhart’s anarchic way of thinking (concept of God) about freedom that frees him from detachments. I express that by applying Black Artistic Thought (rooted in Negritude) to our ontological thinking, we can move beyond the boundaries set in society. I use artworks from artists Harmonia Rosales, Hank Willis Thomas, Augusta Savage and Jacob Lawrence to show how art plays a significant role in the development of the collective group. Implementing concepts like Black Artistic Thought and learning from movements such as the Harlem Renaissance and Black Lives Matter will assist (the United States) in moving towards a revolution that is beneficial to everyone once it is understood.
June 2020
November 2020
A reflection of my 2020 Summer Residency experience at IDSVA. Additionally, I talk about the hybridity of connections made from the idea of how to think about Plato's eternal form, Kant’s theory of subjectivity, and my overall life experiences that helped me understand becoming an artist-philosopher.
RADICAL FREEDOM AND A MISSED OPPORTUNITY OF SILENCE WITH GOD
April 2020
This paper examines Reiner Schürmann’s analysis of Mesiter Eckhart’s exhortation and how it excludes the importance of “silence with God” as a missed opportunity that would further his insights on how nature gives one the freedom to detach oneself, re-image oneself, elevate oneself, and articulate oneself.
SHIFTING PERSPECTIVES IN BECOMING: SEE HER IN THE OTHER
April 2020
This exposition focuses on the following: the dual role of subjectivity with themes that address identity as well as a non-individualistic idea of selfhood as expressed in the artwork of Harmonia Rosales (a Chicagoan woman of color) and her painting The Creation of God; Emmanuel Levinas’s The Interview, Jacques Lacan’s The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psycho-Analysis, and two works from Amelia Jones’s The Feminism and Visual Culture Reader: the first is the “Introduction and Conclusion to the Guerilla Girls Bedside Companion to the History of Western Art,” where The Guerilla Girls (a group of all female artivists wear gorilla masks as a political act of solidarity through anonymity); the second work is “From Ways of Seeing,” written by John Berger (a white male artist known for his contributions as an art critic); explores is the question of the ‘becoming’ of Subjectivity in the areas of identity and a non-individualistic idea of selfhood introduced by way of desire, language, and ‘otherness.’
WOMEN’S ART “HERSTORY”: EXAMINED THROUGH VOICE, MIND, BODY
December 2019
This paper argues that although the woman’s voice has been undervalued throughout the history of art in various forms, Freud understands that the woman’s “voice.” The artwork and writing of female artists Mendieta, Export and Ukeles resurrect what could be considered Freud’s lost intention to advocate for women. Additionally, the work of Tupac Shakur will help illuminate Freud’s “admiration” of women through some of his most influential songs that are dedicated to women (black women in particular however, for the purpose of this paper when there is a reference made to “woman/women” we refer to all women) through a subjectivity which recognizes the value of a woman’s art.
DUCHAMP: THE UNDERCOVER UTOPIAN AND HIS READYMADE ART
In this paper I discuss how utopianism plays a role in the development of a hidden identity in Marcel Duchamp, and his Readymade Fountain. Duchamp uses the term Readymade to describe works of art created using manufactured objects that require little to no modification.