New York-based performance artist Nate Hill has become renowned for his satirical take on race and power in America.
Hill, a black man, is now grabbing a lot of attention with his latest artwork entitled “Trophy Scarves” in which Hill, 36, goes to the homes of different white women and drapes them over his shoulders. Some women are partially nude and others are completely naked.
Hill summarizes the rationality behind this eye-popping work in this manner:
“I wear white women for status and power.”
In each of his “Trophy Scarves” photos, Hill is resplendent in tuxedo and is posing with a variety of Caucasian females in the New York area, wearing barely anything and draped over his shoulders.
According to his interview in the magazine Vice, Hill said the project is sort of mocking people’s ideas of race and status in a “goofy” but memorable way.
“Well, there are people who see certain races as status symbols, and someone had to comment on that,” he said. “I wanted to find another way to come at that. I guess it’s the same kind of satirical, tongue-in-cheek approach that I like to take with things. I like to talk about something serious but do it in a lighter, kind of a goofy way. ”
Hill is hardly a stranger to controversy. In fact, it is part of his mission to use his unique artistic eye to bring attention to issues of importance. In November 2011, for example, Hill kicked up some dust on the streets of Harlem when he donned whiteface and posed as “The White Ambassador.”
Take a look at a partial gallery of his “Trophy Scarves” below.
