untitled, Edmund Yankov; Peter Sekaer

6Exhibition Label:
"Intersection of Race and Gender," Mar-1999, Douglas Steward
As Europeans expanded their influence globally and encountered people of color, they continued to value their own cultures above those of indigenous peoples. This prejudice led them to conclude that those whom they encountered either had no culture or had a “primitive” version of European culture. Such ethnocentrism continues to thrive in the United States in subtle (and not so subtle) forms.
Peter Sekaer’s photograph can be read as a marvelous parody of this old notion that Euro-American culture is somehow above or more advanced than that of people of color. At the center of Sekaer’s piece is the word “COLORED,” which ascends the side of a staircase. Three youths stand off-center at the bottom of this staircase in motley, paint-spattered attire. Above the staircase hangs a poster advertising Call of the Savage and featuring Tarzan and Jane figures that are, as usual, white.
The representation of these white “savages” in the background of a space occupied by and marked for African Americans underscores the notion of “savage” as a white construct. Ironically, in ascending the staircase designated for their particular use, the black youths would have to pass a visual depiction of, not themselves, but whites as savages. This humorous arrangement of elements thus parodies the usual depiction of white culture above black culture.