My message to the fashion industry and to all institutions is to accept black people in their full form. Stopping black people from fully expressing themselves for who we really are causes a lot of problems for us. The negative stigma around black hair, is part of the problem and is my focus for this piece.
For this piece, I decided to create a painting of black people, men and women with different hairstyles. In the background, I included cut up pieces of articles and of people who have culturally appropriated or black people who have been stopped from going to work/school because of their natural hair. I tore them up to show that this will no longer be tolerated anymore.
We have to make a change, and there will be a change.
It is also in the background because this is just one of the issues that us black people face. I also braided hair using Expressions hair glued to areas of the piece. This piece is a mixture of an appreciation of black hair, but also a reminder of what has been done and needs to stop. If there is not positive actions towards the idea of black hair, then there is no appreciation for black people and the cycle begins.
It’s the small things that start big fires.
I also wrote a poem relating to this piece, by playing on the famous fairy tale Rapunzel.
