AN INTERVIEW WITH: RACHEL ISABEL MUKENDI.
RACHEL ISABEL MUKENDI, ARTIST/FILMMAKER, CHELSEA, UAL (ALUMNI). What does the notion of the body politić look like now? We are making progress in regards to the notion of body politics, simply because of the endless campaigning we’ve had to do where our bodies have been policed and up for debate by people who don’t look like us. I think now more than ever there has been a shift in body politics, there is a power shift because we are now taking ownership of ourselves and fighting not to be censored. Body politics will consistently evolve because of the power shifts, we are in a position where we are creating our own narratives, forging our own identities and speaking out when our bodies are misrepresented. What embodies ‘blackness in the white landscape’, and what does this look like to you? Blackness in the white landscape, is consistently navigating in all white spaces, it is trying to understand the micro and macro aggressions that feed in the narrative of your everyday. Serena Williams is the embodiment of blackness in a white landscape. I think Jordan Peele’s film Get Out almost perfectly encapsulates what blackness in a white landscape is like, the stigmas that are attached to being black, the stares, the touching, the constant questions you get about flippant generalisations. What are the differences in gender related issues / topics / relationships? We are becoming more aware that gender is a social construct. I think with gender the realisation that you can be non binary is a mind blowing notion because of how many people identify with it. I think there’s 136 // BODY POLITIĆ.
something so beautiful and honest about that. Talking about gender in the sphere of blackness is something that has proven quite difficult because of all the stigmas that the westernised mentalities have attached to it. That it isn’t the norm, it isn’t as simple as ticking a box and saying I’m either a man or a woman. The issues with gender is that people see it as a very black and white thing when it isn’t there are a lot of grey areas and those grey areas should be talked about more. What are the differences between the British and American microcosms in the discussion of race? American discussions of race are very overt, in the education system they have included African American studies, in however Britain it is a rare subject matter. A lot of British history did not actually happen in Britain itself. As ugly as the subject of slavery is and colonial histories, the British discussion about race is quite a touchy subject because people don’t want to address it as an issue even though it has been institutionalised. With America, the racism is an obvious daily battle because black Americans are being killed by the people paid to protect them. How are issue of body politics manifested, visualised and framed in the everyday? There has been a surge in debates about the body politics, from The Slumflowers’ saggyboobsmatter campaign, to Munroe Bergdorf’s existance as a black trans woman, we’re seeing social media platforms such as twitter become a daily battlefield that policies our body. The issues of body politics have manifested a lot over the last few years because there has been more of an open
