In her brilliant Shine: The Visual Economy of Light in African Diasporic Aesthetic Practice, Krista A. Thompson considers four “lens-centered” aesthetic practices across the circum-Caribbean: street photography in Atlanta and New Orleans; Jamaican dancehall spectacles; extravagant prom entrances in the Bahamas; and the bling aesthetics of contemporary transnational hip-hop. Delving into the histories and visual economies of each, Thompson argues “contemporary diasporic formation takes place in the light of technology, in the flickering, unsettled, reflective and bright surfaces, the pixels, of photographic and videographic representation” (p. 9). Weaving together frameworks from performance studies, visual culture studies, ethnography, and art history, Shine offers an extended and deeply thoughtful meditation on how diasporic communities take up light's simultaneous illuminating and blinding effects as representational possibility and performative excess. For Thompson, shine itself offers a metaphor of, and material response to, diasporic fragmentation, a critical space for considering slavery's visual logics, and...
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
Winter 2017
December 01 2017
Shine: The Visual Economy of Light in African Diasporic Aesthetic Practice
Shine: The Visual Economy of Light in African Diasporic Aesthetic Practice
by Krista A.
Thompson
Durham, NC
: Duke University Press
, 2015
. 368 pp., 143 color ill., notes, biblio., index. $99.95 cloth, $27.95 paper
Matthew Francis Rarey, Jr.
Matthew Francis Rarey, Jr.
Matthew Francis Rarey is Assistant Professor of the Arts of Africa and the black Atlantic at Oberlin College. mrarey@oberlin.edu
Search for other works by this author on:
Matthew Francis Rarey, Jr.
Matthew Francis Rarey is Assistant Professor of the Arts of Africa and the black Atlantic at Oberlin College. mrarey@oberlin.edu
Online ISSN: 1937-2108
Print ISSN: 0001-9933
© 2017 by the Regents of the University of California.
2017
The Regents of the University of California
African Arts (2017) 50 (4): 90–92.
Citation
Matthew Francis Rarey; Shine: The Visual Economy of Light in African Diasporic Aesthetic Practice. African Arts 2017; 50 (4): 90–92. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/AFAR_r_00383
Download citation file:
Sign in
Don't already have an account? Register
Client Account
You could not be signed in. Please check your email address / username and password and try again.
Could not validate captcha. Please try again.
Sign in via your Institution
Sign in via your InstitutionEmail alerts
123
Views
Advertisement
Cited By
Related Articles
Between Visual Scenes and Beautiful Lives: A Conversation with Saidiya Hartman
October (June,2022)
Afrotropes: A Conversation with Huey Copeland and Krista Thompson
October (December,2017)
What the Jews Do
TDR/The Drama Review (September,2011)
Related Book Chapters
The Rise and Shine of Digital Light
A Biography of the Pixel
Sonic Modernities: Listening to Diasporic Urban Music
Sound as Popular Culture: A Research Companion
Come Rain or Shine
At War with the Weather: Managing Large-Scale Risks in a New Era of Catastrophes
Shine the Light, Then Get out of the Way
Inclusion on Purpose: An Intersectional Approach to Creating a Culture of Belonging at Work