Visiting Artist Series Lecture: Richard Lou

Richard Lou, Artist, Professor, University of Memphis

As a Chicano Artist, the recurrent themes are the subjugation of my community by the Dominant Culture and White Privilege. These works manifest themselves in the creation of counter-images and counter-definitions made in a self-determinant manner. As a contemporary image-maker, I am interested in collecting dissonant ideas and narratives allowing them to bump into each other, to coax new meanings and possibilities that dismantle the hierarchy of images. The work serves as an ideological, social, political, and cultural matrix from which I understand my place in this world and to make a simple marking of the cultural shifts of my community. The artwork examines how communities use images and language to dehumanize the "Other" in order to ignore the "Other’s" basic human rights. It challenges unquestioned claims to territory and legal status.

To Defend Yourself: Education as instrument and catalyst and art as a language to assert your humanity in an uncertain world.

Image Credit: Richard Lou. 2015. Stories on My Back. multi-media installation, corn husks, digital prints, audio, video, recliner 25ft w x 30ft l x 10 ft h - average dimensions | 2015. Installation. Crosstown Arts, Memphis, TN.