Patrick Kelly’s “Mississippi Lisa”

Subverting Racial Kitsch with a T-Shirt

Authors

  • Sequoia Barnes

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15367/kf.v7i1.304

Abstract

This article looks closely at one of Patrick Kelly’s T-shirt designs from his spring/summer 1989 ready-to-wear collection inspired by the Mona Lisa. Kelly’s “Mississippi Lisa” T-shirt design combines many of his inspirations and narrative experiences that inform his design process. The article explores how Kelly attempted to reclaim the trope of the mammy to redefine her meanings through an overtly camp yet kitsch aesthetic and interrogates what might be at stake in doing so.

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Published

2020-11-05

Issue

Vol. 7 No. 1 (2020): Kalfou: A Journal of Comparative and Relational Ethnic Studies

Section

Feature Articles

License

Published by
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122
http://tupjournals.temple.edu

On behalf of
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106


Sponsored by the Regents of the University of California. Copyright © by the Regents of the University of California.

All rights reserved

ISSN 2151-4712 (print)
ISSN 2372-0751 (online)