eustaquio neves
Other slave ships
Eustaquio Neves was inspired to make this artwork after a trip to the hospital emergency room, where the majority of sick and injured patients were Black.[1] One can expand Neves’ simple realization to discuss how the healthcare system is an institution structured by violence. In the 20th century, the infliction of structural and racial violence impacted Black women’s reproductive freedom.[2] Eugenics fueled the biological deterministic idea that Black children are born criminals and that Black families are the root of the country’s problems. This racial discourse that emphasized White superiority and the need to improve the Brazilian race, legitimized the need for regulatory policies of the reproductive health of Black women.[3] The structure of the institution maintained this process by allowing broad access to sterilization, but little access to contraceptives.[4] Consequently, the Brazilian healthcare system restricted the agency of Black women by denying resources and inflicting bodily harm, and therefore acted as a mechanism of genocide.
Neves realized the racial marginalization in various aspects of society, and used Other Slave Ships to link this social exclusion and inequality to the era of slavery. He viewed modern spaces that are uncomfortable or unsanitary, including hospitals, prisons, or trains, as contemporary slave ships.[1] Using his photography set, Neves establishes a relationship between the slave market and the modern global economy. The forceful filling of African slaves onto crowded ships to journey to the West parallels the mandatory daily filling of Afro-Brazilians onto crowded buses to travel to and from work in the inner city. Globalization of Brazil’s economy has led to greater “power imbalances between disparate social groups”, causing Neves to attribute globalization to a new form of slavery.[5] One such booming industry in Brazil is that of sex tourism, that has attracted foreigners from all over the world. Due to “socially constructed norms of femininity and their relationship to color and race”, Mulata women tend to be hypersexualized due to their possession of some White beauty ideals and their association with “illegitimate and dishonorable sexual practices”.[6] Though hegemonic ideals of White supremacy as well as perpetual violence have rendered Black women as hierarchically inferior in many aspects of society, typically devalued blackness can be eroticized and valued in terms of sexual commodification.[7] This commodification dates back to the time of slavery, as Black women were sexually manipulated and used as forms of pleasure for White men, instilling longstanding notions of the seductiveness and desirability of Black women.[8] One photograph in Other Slave Ships depicts a naked female with a runaway slave notice slicing through her body as a means to comment on violence against women in Brazilian society.
Both the inspiration of Other Slave Ships creation as well as its display demonstrates the structural and symbolic violence most notably against Black women in Brazilian society. The modern transportation vessels as well as the objectification and commodification of Black bodies suggest that the abolition of slavery never truly occurred.
comparison of past and present slave ships
good appearance
Neves uses Good Appearance to examine the forms of social injustice against the Afro-Brazilian population in Brazil. In 1951, Congress implemented the Afonso Arison Law that intended to protect against racial discrimination in the education system and the job market.[9] As a means to bypass this legislation, employment advertisements required boa aparência (good appearance) as a job qualification for high female presence occupations, implying the acceptance of only European phenotypes.
Due to hegemonic notions of White supremacy, the standard of feminine beauty in Brazil equates to characteristics of straight, light hair and fair skin tone. “Evaluations of beauty have historically been used to control women by linking their worth to their beauty”.[10] Therefore, there are gendered practices of socioeconomic exclusion that sustain employment of Afro-Brazilian women in domestic services, thereby perpetuating the stigma of this occupation as low status.[11]
In his photographs, Neves combines boa aparência advertisements with historical descriptions of runaway slaves to comment on the method of identifying and recapturing runaway slaves based on physical features, that clearly do not meet the “good appearance” standard.[12] Neves highlights how White people have perpetuated racist practices over time by linking two distinct aspects of history into one artwork.
Due to hegemonic notions of White supremacy, the standard of feminine beauty in Brazil equates to characteristics of straight, light hair and fair skin tone. “Evaluations of beauty have historically been used to control women by linking their worth to their beauty”.[10] Therefore, there are gendered practices of socioeconomic exclusion that sustain employment of Afro-Brazilian women in domestic services, thereby perpetuating the stigma of this occupation as low status.[11]
In his photographs, Neves combines boa aparência advertisements with historical descriptions of runaway slaves to comment on the method of identifying and recapturing runaway slaves based on physical features, that clearly do not meet the “good appearance” standard.[12] Neves highlights how White people have perpetuated racist practices over time by linking two distinct aspects of history into one artwork.
video projection looping of good appearance
The video "Good appearance" includes the installation of artist Eustaquio Neves presented at the Pan-African Contemporary Art in the city of Salvador in March and April 2005.
Screenplay, Direction and Photography: Eustaquio Neves
Production: Eustaquio Neves and Pablo Lobato
Editing and Finishing: Bruno Pacheco
Screenplay, Direction and Photography: Eustaquio Neves
Production: Eustaquio Neves and Pablo Lobato
Editing and Finishing: Bruno Pacheco
References
[1] Cleveland 2013:94
[2] Santos 2012:13
[3] Santos 2012:15
[4] Santos 2012:20
[5] Cleveland 2013:96
[6] Caldwell 2007:50
[7] Caldwell 2007:61
[8] Telles 2004: 25
[9] Cleveland 2013: 100
[10] Hordge-Freeman 2015:123
[11] Hordge-Freeman 2015:113
[12] Cleveland 2013:102
[2] Santos 2012:13
[3] Santos 2012:15
[4] Santos 2012:20
[5] Cleveland 2013:96
[6] Caldwell 2007:50
[7] Caldwell 2007:61
[8] Telles 2004: 25
[9] Cleveland 2013: 100
[10] Hordge-Freeman 2015:123
[11] Hordge-Freeman 2015:113
[12] Cleveland 2013:102