Name/Title
RedboneEntry/Object ID
2020.4 Description
Lavett Ballard, “Redbone,” 2019. Mixed media work on birchwood panel.
Lavett Ballard is a contemporary artist based in Philadelphia who uses collage to interrogate presumptions about race, gender, and perception. Her works put past and present, personal and universal into dialogue with each other by combining archival photography, magazine cutouts, pigments, and other materials, such as copper foil, wax, and hair, which she adheres to wood. “Redbone” problematizes Eurocentric ideals of beauty and their impact across generations of African American women. “Redbone” is a term–often derogatory–referencing lighter-complected people of color. The central figure combines an archival photo of a young woman with the eyes of Ballard’s aunt as an adolescent. Carved into her features are markings reminiscent of the traditional scarifications that were part of coming-of-age rituals for young women in West Africa. To the right are a photo of activist Angela Davis, and a cutout of a girl from Ebony magazine, who have facial markings similar to those of the central figure. Through such juxtapositions Ballard interweaves culturally inherited and socially imposed ideals of beauty for African American women.Made/Created
Artist Information
Artist
Lavett BallardRole
ArtistDate made
2019