Natural Hair Campaign - Final

About the piece.

Following the natural hair protest in south Africa earlier this year, some students and I pushed for a natural hair campaign here on campus. The Pan African Students Association helped us in hosting the campaign and it was a success. Concluding the campaign was an art show featuring natural hair. After pulling this off I was Inspired to keep the fire burning. I decided to have this as the theme of my final project. The objective of my work is to continue where the organization left off, by creating post-campaign awareness about natural hair. Seeing as the organization didn’t give much background information during their campaign, it seemed like a more independent campaign. My work bridges that gap by having a piece of the actual protest incorporated with the focus of the campaign which reflects again on the issues that caused the protest. One of the ideas reflected upon during the campaign, natural hair in a professional environment, was also prominent I the protests in South Africa. Having students on campus speak on the matter as if they were involved was enough to show that this is in fact an underlying issue.

From an artistic perspective, my work aims to combine the organization’s implementation of an idea to the actual event that sparked the idea. This work is an informational piece aimed at creating awareness of an underlying issue that often ignored even by those it directly affects. It’s also a showcase of the pieces featured during the Art Show.

Installation

This piece is best installed in Havens Lounge in Wilson Commons. Why? Continuity. Literally. This piece is a continuation of the work I did for the Art Show featuring Natural Hair. The pieces should be installed alongside each other. The installation will mix pictures (from the art show) and videos. Some of the pictures will be larger than life prints while some will be projected on a wall.

The piece will be displayed across four screens on the opposite side of the room from the projection. Two of these displays will be playing a video from the protest in South Africa in monochrome while the other two will play the rest of the video in succession.

The background music will play throughout the room. Its purpose, to set the mood for the installation. The rest of the audio will play near the corresponding screen. Is will be just loud enough to be heard from a few steps from the screen and not the entire room.

Numbers 1 through 8 represent the large pictures. (8 is installed on the floor and has its spotlight on the roof directly above)

The roman numbers represent Screens.

'T' represents standing tables