The Iconography of the Wet Nurse in Black Atlantic Contemporary Art: Transnational Re-readings and Archival Interventions
No. 22 (2026-02-27)Author(s)
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Irene Martín PuertaUniversidad de Granada, SpainORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7176-2094
Abstract
This paper delves into the representation of Afro-descendant wet nurses in the Americas’ visual culture, from nineteenth-century-colonial photography up to the present. Starting from the iconography created through this medium, which configures a language used as a tool for social control, we will review how contemporary visual production intervenes in these archives. The relational analysis of pieces created by women artists and based on collections from Brazil, Peru, and the United States, reveals that appropriationist operations are, firstly, a way of dismantling archival dynamics of erasure and stereotyping, allowing for the amplification of its stories, and secondly, a means for engaging the audience in the questioning of hegemonic discourses.
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