Decolonial Aesthesis and the Art Problem

Abstract

This chapter is divided into three parts, each focused on understanding decolonial aesthetics. First, it defines decolonial aesthetics by exploring how it moves beyond traditional aesthetics to focus on concepts, representation, and Blackness. Next, it examines the philosophical influences that shaped decolonial aesthetics, such as Africana existential philosophy, decolonial perspectives, and Black radical thought. Finally, the chapter discusses the importance of decolonial aesthetics for Blackness, emphasizing how it breaks away from Western views of aesthetics and requires a shift from aesthetic geography to the epistemology of experience (aesthesis).