I had the pleasure of attending my first art exhibition in Trinidad in probably a decade recently. What made it even better is that I have known the talented artist since childhood, growing up as neighbors and attending primary school together. Ms Brianna McCarthy's work is rooted in the depiction of women of color and it has been very intriguing watching her develop as an artist over the years. She is also a fellow naturalista and when I first started following her work, a lot of her girls also had natural hair, in addition to their signature elongated necks.
This collection, After Color, sought to use a deconstructive approach to explore issues of colorism in post colonial societies using mixed-media. The artist used handmade dolls and collages to portray women stripped down to the essence of their form with no recognizable skin color or hair texture present. She also used guerilla advertising style billboards based on personal classified ads to spark discussion on what we value when we choose to describe ourselves. Her artist talk was very insightful and spurred probably the most mature and enlightening discussion on race and class I have ever engaged in, in Trinidad and Tobago, with a group of strangers, from all different ethnic backgrounds, and there was no yelling or cussing involved. lol. Congrats to Brianna again and you can check out more of her work at her blog
PassionFruit or check out her
tumblr.
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| The Artist, My favorite Doll and I. She's a fierce naturalista too! |
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| The boo's favorite piece. Note the mirrors in the eyes |
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| Her very first Doll |
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| Another Stylish doll |
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| Her very first Collage Girl |
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| Brianna's signature necks. |
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| Even After-Colour, you can't miss those lips! |
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| My hair for the occasion. A Ms Jessie's Baby Buttercreme chunky twist-out. |
If you are in Trinidad, you should definitely check out
Medulla Art Gallery, they have some other great shows coming up.
