A constellation of (artistic) voices: Assembling historically provocative artwork and (e)merging racial perceptions

Abstract This paper reports on the use of historically provocative artwork (i.e., artwork that challenges master narratives of history) created by Titus Kaphar and graduate students learning about leading with a socio-political consciousness about racism. The authors provided 17 students a series of prompts, based on Critical Race Theory (CRT) and critical art analysis, to instigate reflection, dialogue, and artistry in response to a painting by Kaphar. The authors organized participant-generated artwork into assemblages and crafted accompanying narratives which illustrated the inter/intra-changes among the components of the process and expressions: (1) compositionality, (2) aesthetics, (3) temporality, (4) historical injustice/oppressiveness, (5) manifestations of power. Thus, participants’ artwork exposed how engaging with historically provocative can heighten socio-political complexities relating to the consciousness of race/ism and white(ness) supremacy.