Quiet As It's Kept: Passing Subjects, Contested Identities
The phrase “passing for white” first appears in advertisements for the return of runaway slaves. Abolitionist fiction later adopts the phenomenon of racial passing as a major literary theme. The term continued to enjoy currency in literature in the postbellum era and during the Harlem Renaissance. Today, “passing” has various manifestations and applications. Not limited to race, the term may indicate subversions of gender, sexuality, religion, ability and class, among other identity coordinates. At Vassar College, interest in this topic has reemerged since the publication of Karin Tanabe’s novel The Gilded Years (2016), about Anita Hemmings’ experience as the first black woman known to attend the College. Hemmings’ story is currently being adapted into a film, A White Lie, starring Zendaya and produced by Reese Witherspoon and Zendaya.
Quiet as It’s Kept presented works of film, photography, and paintings by seven contemporary artists alongside historical examples of art’s engagement with this complex topic, providing an opportunity to rethink identity categories that have long been naturalized or taken for granted. Artists Adrian Piper, Howardena Pindell, Lorraine O'Grady, Nikki S. Lee, Genevieve Gaignard, and Aaron Turner address notions of ethnic and racial passing while other artists in the exhibition such as Lezley Saar and Martine Gutierrez explore the idea that gender fluidity can be seen as a form of gender passing. Photo-based works from the nineteenth century and the 1930s are included to show the history of interest in this issue.
This exhibition was organized in conjunction with a conference of the same name that took place April 5 - 7, 2019 in various locations on Vassar College's campus. The conference was organized by Mia Mask, Professor of Film, and Hiram Perez, Associate Professor of English. The exhibition continued in the Hoene Hoy Photography Gallery on the second floor. There are works that appeared in this exhibition that were loans to the Loeb and therefore do not appear on this website.
