Aesthetics of Excess: The Art and Politics of Black and Latina Embodiment

by Jillian Hernandez

Heavy makeup, gaudy jewelry, dramatic hairstyles, and clothes that are considered cheap, fake, too short, too tight, or too masculine: working-class Black and Latina girls and women are often framed as embodying "excessive" styles that are presumed to indicate sexual deviance. In Aesthetics of Excess Jillian Hernandez examines how middle-class discourses of aesthetic value racialize the bodies of women and girls of color. At the same time, their style can be a source of cultural capital when appropriated by the contemporary art scene. Drawing on her community arts work with Black and Latina girls in Miami, Hernandez analyzes the art and self-image of these girls alongside works produced by contemporary artists and pop musicians such as Wangechi Mutu, Kara Walker, and Nicki Minaj. Through these relational readings, Hernandez shows how notions of high and low culture are complicated when women and girls of color engage in cultural production and how they challenge the policing of their bodies and sexualities through artistic authorship.

Genres: Nonfiction, Race, Latinx, Theory, History, Art, Sociology

320 pages, Paperback

First published September 21, 2020

About the author

Jillian Hernandez is Assistant Professor of Gender, Sexualities, and Women's Studies at the University of Florida.

Reviews

[Kassandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think overall this was a pretty good book. I marked it 4 stars but I would argue that it’s ALMOST 4 stars rather than it actually being 4 stars. I felt like 3 stars was an injustice to the book.

ANYWAYS. I really enjoyed the first 3 chapters—especially chapter 3. I enjoyed how she brought in lesbianism and how masculinity is situated with the aesthetic of excess. It’s something I wouldn’t have connected but I totally understood what she was doing. I think she lost me in parts of chapter 4. Like I was kind of in and out of that chapter. I think at times her language was a bit inaccessible and a bit confusing.

However, I would recommend this book. It’s a very unique art history book that has a sense of familiarity to it rather than it being a cold education book. While she focused primarily on the aesthetic of excess in Miami, I think it’s a relevant book for any Black or Brown woman in the United States.

[Sandra Del Rio]

“When Black and Latina girls work the tools of representation with their own hands, when they work as artists, they can challenge the constant policing of their bodies and sexualities and, more importantly, create new possibilities for their embodiment through the articulation of their multifaceted identities.”

Am excited to teach this text in my class this semester.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exploration of excess in style and embodiment amongst Black and Latinx youth. Mostly in the form of an ethnography of an arts education program.

[Alexia Palomino]

Read for a class I’m teaching in the fall and loved it. I’ve read her articles before but did not deep dive into the book until this past month! Can’t wait to include on my syllabus