Portfolio 2
These are mock-ups for the first three cards in this series, which was first presented as part of "Hands Up Don't Shoot: Artists Respond" a multi-venue exhibition in Saint Louis and Ferguson, Missouri. The cards are free for the viewer to take. The series was a response to the media coverage of the Michael Brown shooting, other shootings like it, and the subsequent protests across the country. The cards re-appropriate the term "thug" (originally a Hindi term for "bandit") from white supremacist rhetoric as a strategy to assert resistance and dignity. I plan to continue with this series, which focuses on the political and social resistance of women of color within the context of global racism and patriarchy.
The first three cards feature Phoolan Devi (also known as India's "Bandit Queen"), Angela Davis, and Yuri Kochiyama. All three are women of color who resisted the dominant culture, fought for liberation of oppressed people, and at one point in their lives were incarcerated. The back of each card tells their story, along with a short statement about the project as a whole.