Dark Meat 

Dark Meat is about consumption – the power relationship between the consumer and the consumed. Dark meat is the object of a twisted myth, a toxic stereotype ­­– a dehumanizing fetish. The juxtaposition of Jeffrey Dahmer and OJ Simpson isn’t the story of two killers. It is the story of how black bodies are commodified. Dark Meat is about predator and prey.

The fetishization of the black male body and the resulting dehumanization of black men manifested itself in Jeffrey Dahmer’s desire to collect and consume black men. Though Dahmer took the fetish to an extreme, we have many more current examples of this consumption.

“Over much of my art career I have been researching and creating work related to the crimes of Jeffrey Dahmer. In countless interviews with psychiatric doctors, police investigators and journalists, Dahmer denied race as a motivating factor in his sexual assaults, murder, and cannibalism. Though, ten of Dahmer's seventeen victims were black men (eleven if you include Tracy Edwards who escaped and helped end Dahmer's killing spree). My work around this is an attempt to give voice to these victims and at the same time, explore black sexuality and desire – the motivation behind Dahmer's cannibalism was, I believe driven by an inner conflict over his desire for black men while holding white supremacist ideologies. Through the case of Jeffrey Dahmer, I explore notions desire/repulsion and savagery---in history as well as present day. As well as, perceptions of so-called civilized behavior, which, historically has been visually synonymous with whiteness.”[1]

Black men who become “white famous” appeal to caricatures of black masculinity while appearing non-threatening enough to be welcomed into white spaces. Assimilation as a strategy to mitigate the threat of one’s blackness has deep roots as a coping mechanism, and it defined Simpson’s career. OJ’s most notorious observation - “I’m not Black, I’m OJ,” - succinctly expressed a sentiment that most Black people regarded as hubristic, if not delusional. OJ forgot that he was the dark meat.

The Jay-Z track, “The Story of OJ” responds to OJ’s observation with: “Still nigga.”[2] Elizabeth’s Axtman’s mixed-media series, “The Ride Back to Black,” includes this moment of clarity:

 “OJ Simpson isn’t the first Black person to believe he successfully transcended race and he won’t be the last; but in 1994 he had a very important phone call ring in his ear. There is a very well-known saying in the Black community known as the ‘Nigga Wake Up Call’. For those of you that don’t know, a NWUC is when a Black person forgets their Blackness in any given situation and is then reminded, rather brutally, by an unpredicted act of racism. Many Black people have answered the call, begrudgingly, but none rang more thunderously or more publicly than OJ Simpson’s did.

Satellite Art Show : SXSW Week Art Fair
March 13 – 17, 2019
Museum for Human Achievement
7600 Lyons Road, Austin, TX 78702
satellite-show.com

[1] https://elizabethaxtman.com/artwork/756726-Dark-Meat.html

[2] Jay Z, “The Story of OJ” from the album 4:44 (2017)

[3]http://residencyart.com/pastexhibitions/the-ride-back-to-black