Artist: Masud Ashley Olufani
Tatum: 2019
Tuseum: Hammonds House Museum (Atlanta, United States)
Techniek: Paper
This work investigates a phrase commonly associated with the black vernacular tradition, particularly in the Southern United States. Referring to the relative size of the lips of people from the African diaspora, the term derives from the sardonic, mythological notion that black lips are so large that they could cool a pot of soup with one blow. In this context, what was once seen as a grotesque aspect of black physicality has been reinterpreted through humor--a powerful mechanism for survival. The soup can links the work to Andy Warhol’s pop art creations. In this iteration, it references the objectification, appropriation and commodification of the black body by the multi-billion-dollar beauty care industry. The shifting perception of an “ideal” standard of beauty now includes aspects of the black body devoid of the social consequences of blackness.
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