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A canvas montage highlighting Black Women of dark hues.
"The Women in Between" is a portrait montage project by Boxx The Artist that will examine local grass-roots trailblazers to provide recognition of the roles that many marginalized dark-skinned Black women play in society, and continue the conversations of equity and inclusion. Boxx will take a focus on the racial bais through the history of printmaking that inadequately captured dark complexions. She will highlight portraits of underrepresented and influential dark-skinned Black women along the BIPOC and LGBTQ spectrum that have dwelled in the shadows. Through expressionistic portraiture, this collection will examine artistic expressions of women that have been impactful to the communities they serve(d), yet their narratives are often excluded due to their intersectionality. Dark-skinned Black women often not only face racism, but the prejudice of colorism. This project will be featured in a premier exhibit at Gallery 924 upon completion in 2023 for an in-person interactive exhibition that features documented stories and an interactive art installation.
Mission of the project
Mission of the project
Through this project Boxx The Artist will focus on the effects of systematic racial bias rooted in the printmaking industry. Canvas prints are a popular method used by visual artists to create quality printed art pieces. To understand the history of canvas prints, we must look at the history photo prints. The inception of photography led to cultural advancements in methods of collecting history through print photos which ultimately led to developments like canvas prints and modern color photography. The tools that shaped this industry in regards to portraiture were designed and crafted specifically for white skin hues. The formulation of color film technology, developed from the 1930s-1950s, lacked the photosensitive chemicals that highlighted the range of yellow, brown, and red hues found in darker complexions. This led to photos that did not adequetaely capture the tones correctly of dark-skin people.
Photo Prints
For years, the consideration of Black people and the range of colors we are, were excluded from the printmaking process. We may be familiar the black-and-white era of photos that emerged in 1800s. This is much more than a modern day filter, but was the only method widely used to print photos. During this era, photos of darker complexions were either over or underexposed for over a century.
Nevertheless, photograph portraits were groundbreaking for Black Americans, and became a powerful tool and expression of personifying and dignifying the Black experience. Prior to the invention and access of photography, paintings or drawn portraits were the only way to record the appearance of someone. Outside of artistic creation, these methods for portraiture were luxury for the wealthy.
The essence of Black people were reduced on a mainstream level and often captured as caricatures misrepresenting their true appearance and features. Thus, the importance of photography was to offer a more true narrative and humanize the Black experience.
Black Dignity Through Portraiture
Shirley Cards
Shirley Cards
Portrait paintings and photo photography has had a cyclical relationship. Photography symplified the process of capturing portraits, although color would be introduced much later. Global leader in print technology, Kodak, set an industry standard with the introduction of "Shirley Cards." The Shirly Card was a reference photos for technicians to balance hues for photo processing. Shirley was an employee of Kodak who posed as a model to create the cards that calibrated the printers in photo labs. Before any image was printed, they used these cards as a reference to make sure that photos were balanced correctly against the color swatches code for her skin tone.
Systematic Racial Bias
This process became the standard, and replicated across the industry. The models were white, so photos were exclusively being calibrated for white skin. This lacked range for dark skin, resulting in poorly printed photos. Racial bias was systematically embedded through the color calibration process for printing with the use of "Shirley Cards" developed by Kodak. Black people, especially with dark skin, simply did not matter in this process. It wasn't the case of not having technology to exist that prevented a more equitable system, but it just was not inclusive.
Cameras became more accessible to Black people, unlike more date times, portrait paintings were a luxury exclusive that were often used to help document history and linage. The convenience of photography soon merged with commercialism allowing folks across various socioeconomic classes to consume. For decades, photos of dark-skinned people were underexposed, blotched, and blacked out, ultimately failing to capture the history that photos tell along with it appropriately.
Canvas printing was ultimately derived from the photography printing system, and carried over these systematic flaws. Soon the digital era emerged that inadvertedly incorporated this bias into the infastructure. It wasn't until the 90s Kodak introduced multiracial Shirley Cards after decades of complaints.
The ultimate tragedy is, Kodak gained two major clients, a chocolate company and furniture company, who complained that the browns in their photos were misrepresenting their products. The years of brown and black people being inadequately captured was not their area of concern, and it took chocolate and furniture to make an adjust over actual human beings being effected.
Technology has rapidly advanced, and we now have advanced color capturing and printing options, however even to this day, printing dark-skinned hues still comes with it challenges. All printers are not created equally. There still is a lack of details that requires extra care, because the original design was not for dark skin hues, especially on canvas.
Visual artistry has evolved in the digital era, and through digital art, artists can capture portraitures and now transfer over images to canvas to integrate and offer the quality and aesthetic of a painting.
The Women In Between
The Women In Between
The "Women In Between" will focus on the diversity of dark skin tones through canvas printing capturing the details through print and explore this systematic bias within printmaking using acrylics as a solution.“The Women in Between,” will also serve to examine colorism through a series of expressionistic portraits that highlight grass-roots trailblazers to provide recognition of the roles that many marginalized dark-skinned women play in society, yet their narratives have not captured. These portraits alone will serve to honor and commemorate the underrepresented who have been blackout, diluted, and blotched out throughout history, while also exposing these inequities, and allow others to understand the world around them a bit more. This project will develop a new version for the traditional "Shirley Cards". Kodak in printmaking created an irresponsible and biased system through categorizing white skin as the standard and neglecting the special care of other skin tones that need to be represented adequately. Creating this project, it will feature at least 6-10 pieces of women and narrate their stories. My primary mediums used will be digital canvas printing and acrylic merging digital and traditional painting.
Boxx The Artist is searching for stories, photos, and interviews of dark-skinned Black women to create a new series of portraits. These woman should have impactful stories and life experiences making meaningful contributions to their families, homes, and or the communities they serve(d).
All perspectives major and minor will be considered. Women do not have to be recognized or well-knowned. Examples include, but are not limited to: Women raising their families, holistic practicioners or doulas, single mothers, career-driven women who have broken glass ceilings, grandmothers who have been the rock of the family, first-generation college students, etc. Ages 21+ will be considered. Women who are comfortable sharing their experience and perspective as a dark-skinned Black woman are perferred. Intersections of class, demographic, socioeconomic status, and women on the LGBTQ+ spectrum to be considered. You may submit on behalf of friend, family member, or someone you'd like to acknowledge with their consent or consent of the family if the person is no longer living. Also accepting interviews if you'd like to discuss colorism and your experiences or the print/photography industry.
Eligibility:
Age: 21+
Identify as a Black women (dark complexion)
Must have an inspirational story as to how they have made an impact
Be open and consent to a recorded interview (not required)
Must be willing to submit photos for a portrait creation or willing to pose for photography portraits
Women subjects can be living or deceased.
Each participant will be provided with a framed copy of the portrait.
If you are willing to be interviewed, open to all perspectives on the conversation of colorism, the print/photo industry, systematic racism.
For any questions please email boxxtheartist@gmail.com
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