‘Art Hoe’ Movement Selfie
These youngsters are transforming classic works of art into something radical.
If you haven’t heard of or seen the phrase “art hoe” before, it might seem slightly jarring to you. For the past one year this term has been garnering fans on the Internet and social media; nonetheless, recently it was presented to a wider audience as a new movement in which women of color are revolutionizing the selfie as an art form.
The phrase “art hoe” when searched on Tumblr, Instagram, or Twitter, brings up an array of brilliantly colorful, creative selfies by youngsters of color around the planet. A great number of these selfies feature their subjects posing in art museums and in front of significant works of arts. Others feature the selfie-takers in front of superimposed images from works by Monet or Van Gogh. Others just include some well-placed Keith Haring-esque flourishes and squiggles. Each one of them are fly as hell.
“Oh androgynous divine figure in heaven , please let me pass my finals without the Mercury retrograde disrupting my flow especially since I’m 18 degrees in Mercury Pisces , Amen “
Mars (pictured), co-founded Art hoe
The magazine Dazed Digital reports that the term “art hoe” was originally coined by rapper Babeo Baggins, while the art hoe aesthetic and movement was founded and popularized by two youngsters – teen artist and blogger Mars & her fellow creator Jam. Mars, who identifies as genderfluid, has described the art hoe movement as an opportunity to change the game and redefine blackness by confronting stereotypes about people of color.
From just a small number of selfies posted to their Tumblr, “art hoe” has developed into a movement, and collective, comprising young people of color from all over the world. For the collective, the art hoe movement is an opportune occasion to empower marginalized groups.
“This isn’t a popularity contest. I and a myriad of others don’t have a mass following,” Arthoecollective curator Sandra told media outlets. “We have a personal understanding of what it’s like to be excluded… and we made this movement to make a space for that.”
Jam (pictured), one of the co-founders of Art hoe
So far the movement has supporters such as Willow Smith and Amandla Stenberg, and is stirring-up interest in both the art and music worlds. Of course, anything cool and different (and black) evokes curiosity and finally imitation — already, the art hoe tag now includes a growing number of participants who are non-black or non-POC. Nonetheless, it’s essential to recall the impetus behind the movement – handing-over a platform for marginalized young people to express themselves fully and honestly.
A lot has been written in the defense of the selfie as an empowering form of self-love and self validation. The art hoe selfie, then, is a sort of radical and revolutionary statement of acceptance of blackness and otherness, recontextualizing what is “art” and what is “beautiful” by conferring on people of color of all genders and expressions the power to control their own images and identities. “Art-hoeism” has now overshadowed the simple idea of the selfie — & has turned into an aesthetic as well as a political movement.
“Honestly my goals start and end with representation and self love/acceptance,” co-founder Jam told the Media. “Seeing a disabled trans black woman superimposing herself over a white man’s painting saying ‘I am here, I have worth, and my existence and art matters!’ is so wildly radical and revolutionary.”
The post Thanks To ‘Art Hoe’ Movement Selfie Gets Redefined For The Black Teens appeared first on TodayOutlook.com.