All at Once
- Rosa Leff
- Graduate School of Education
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2020 Black Artists Support Grant
Responsive Opportunity Grant
Justice for Big Floyd by Rosa Leff.
For this project I will create a series of life-size papercut self-portraits that challenge the one dimensional view folks often have of Blackness. In each self-portrait I will be dressed for one of the many roles I play. By presenting myself as an educator, as a party girl ready for a night out, as a Jew ready to attend services at my synagogue, sweatpants ready to hit the couch, or as an artist ready to give a talk, I will show that not only can Black people be anything, but a single Black woman can be a dozen things at once. Just as many are quick to make assumptions about a person based on the color of their skin, people are quick to assume that my two dimensional works are woodblock prints, linocut, or some other medium. By displaying these life size papercuts in free standing float frames viewers will be able to see right through me. More importantly, because they will be forced to walk around the frames, they will have no choice but to interact with and acknowledge me.