SCULPTURE
BLEACH (2017) Plaster body parts, found objects, faux flowers, bleach, wood, rope. The BLEACH installation was an interactive piece where over the course of three days, people were invited to interact with the work and were able to lower or raise each hand in and out of the buckets of bleach. The piece physically was unable to function without the viewer's participation; leading them to question what role they played within this space while touching, smelling, moving, and observing the installation. This piece comments on the toxic nature of the white beauty standard as it stands as the supreme and desired aesthetic in the United States and how internalized shame can lead to people of color using aggressive processes like skin bleaching in order to feel desired or just to assimilate.





BROWN (2017) Wood and wire. In the United States the brown paper bag has a history of being used as a test to denote lighter skin from darker skin within black communities. The paper bag test was used in the 20th century within many black social institutions such as black sororities, fraternities, and churches to determine who was given or denied access to these spaces. The bag was placed over the head of the individual and their skin was then measured against the brown tone of the bag. This piece is a reconstruction of a brown paper bag which is crumpled and ripped. The object is made of sharp wood laced together by barbed wire. In comparison to the soft and singularly toned structure of a paper bag, its form is hard and jagged and due to the angles of the outside create a wide variety of tones, rendering the recreated bag useless in the practice of the Bag Test. Instead, it exists to remind us of internal and external spaces and the pain that the exclusionary practice of the paper bag test caused by and to black people.


