Moderator: Jalylah Burrell, Loyola Marymount University
Victor Arul, “Fabrics of Rebellion”I am proposing the presentation of a work-in-progress experimental, non-linear collage film
exploring the intertwined evolution of fashion and music within the counterculture of the 1960s.
Utilizing archival footage, original imagery, archival audio, and layered visual techniques, the
film examines how the fashion of the era became an emblem of musical rebellion, cultural
identity, and political dissent.
The aim of the film is to present fashion not as static artifacts but as living expressions of the
dynamic ethos of the 1960s counterculture. I hope to provoke an atypical presentation of how
fashion and music were pivotal in challenging social norms, redefining aesthetics, and
empowering communities.
The film employs a collage aesthetic as opposed to a manner of chronological storytelling. The
aim is to capture a mosaic of impressions, textures, and sounds which mimic the fluidity and of
the countercultural movement.
- Juxtaposing stark monochrome imagery of postwar conservatism with vivid,kaleidoscopic visuals of
countercultural attire inspired by psychedelia, and DIY aesthetics. - Layering performances from acts including The Beach Boys, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, and Janis Joplin
with snippets of protest chants, spoken word, and fashion show soundtracks to emphasize the synergy
between sound and style. - A featuring of how clothing ranging from bell-bottoms to tie-dye, became tools for individualism and
collective identity, directly tied to movements like civil rights, feminism, and antiwar protests. - Incorporating interviews with designers, musicians, and activists of the era alongside depictions of contemporary reimaginings of 1960s fashion, highlighting its enduring legacy.
The film will last for 20 minutes.
The aim of the film is offers an account of historical and cultural narratives through an
experimental filmic lens. By prioritizing non-linear storytelling, the film seeks to resonate
emotionally and historically, evoking lasting impact of the 1960s counterculture.
Jalylah Burrell, “She Flew over the Bridge Wars: Faith Ringgold Rings the Changes”In 1988, Faith Ringgold completed “Change 2: Faith Ringgold’s Over 100 Pound Weight
Loss Performance Story Quilt,” comprised of panels, paint, patterns, photos, stories, and
self-described “songs and raps.” With a body of work included oil painting, acrylic
painting, prints, soft sculptures, textile arts and performance, the nimble artist and
activist was always experimenting with and exhausting the possibilities of form.
Ringgold performed this and other quilts over the course of a few years and this paper
attempts to hear them through formal analysis of her stitches, world play, memoir, We
Flew Over the Bridge, as well as reviews of these performances. This talk lends an ear to
the songs and raps brought into view with this quilt to examine how Ringgold’s style
melded sight and sound. To facilitate this conversation, I put this quilt in conversation
with the work of a Rozeal, a more contemporary Black woman artist whose work
transposes hip hop’s sonic features onto canvasses. If, as Rozeal recognizes in her own
work, “sampling, scratching and blending, all of these elements show up in the
paintings,” what elements show up in Ringgold’s story quilt and how do they help us to
hear a louder, and contemporaneous, moment in hip hop historiography, the Bridge
Wars?
John Wood, “White Men / Black Leather”In the second half of the 20 th century, the black leather jacket (BLJ) became omnipresent
in Western popular culture. As an index of rock-‘n’-roll rebellion, the BLJ today graces the
shoulders of everyone from babies and pets to Taylor Swift and Elon Musk. Yet for all its
ubiquity, scant scholarship has attempted to document the BLJ’s history, let alone interrogate its
significance. And while plenty of critics have accused White rock ‘n’ rollers of appropriating
African-American music, no one, it seems, has thought to question the racial implications of
literally wearing black skin.
This paper hypothesizes that the black leather jacket functioned as a marker of racial
difference during the era of the American civil rights movement. I begin by tracing the history of
the BLJ from motorcycles to movies to music subcultures. Using methods of structuralism
(popularized in the same era as the BLJ), I then compile a schema of oppositional binary codes to
explain the BLJ’s significance in relation to music, politics, and race. This schema is then tested
by comparing two performances by Elvis Presley. Placed in historical context, these analyses
imply that Presley strategically performed both whiteness and blackness at alternate times in his
career, and that the latter was sartorially backed by the BLJ. However, drawing on
poststructuralist queer theory (Halberstam 2005), I suggest that the BLJ was not simply a means
of racial mimicry (in the minstrel tradition), but rather served as a technology of transracial
performance for individuals challenging the binary structures of midcentury American society.
In light of recent political trends, this paper concludes by considering how the BLJ in its
“frozen” mass-commodity form (Hebdige) may confirm Susan Sontag’s assertion that the
popularity of black leather portends a turn toward fascism.
