LaVee Johnson, English
Advisor: Elin Diamond, English
This project examines Solange Knowles’ music videos and supplementing aspects such as lyrics, essays, and her ideology.Through the medium of the music video, Solange invites the viewer into another dimension in which she discards the confines of our current society. Her use of aesthetic, gestures, diverse representation and camera perspective outlines her command over an acknowledgment of social hierarchies. This project analyzes the music video as an aesthetic, non-narrative, object first and as second as an object that bears political weight simply because it presents the world anew. In the hands of Solange Knowles, I argue the music video outlines a new form of resistance that discards passive resistance-one that seems to express passive avoidance. Instead, Solange confronts and both powerfully and gently discards the silent treatment. She creates a voice, sense of belonging, and command over one's agency. In comparison to her contemporary peers,Solange Knowles' compositions and visual representation paired with thought-provoking lyrics, help plant a seed that allows others to escape the binding social structures. In her videos, social structures and hierarchies are not acknowledged and even the most deserted locations places are hot spots for freedom.Solange creates an anti-form of an embodiment of social experiences. Ultimately, her work has the ability to inform social resistance and individual behavior and thought.
