A Morena's Story, 2018
Installations | Exhibitions
A Morena’s Story, uses the female body to empower women of color who’ve experienced body shame, harassment, abuse, and many more. Today social media has made it hard for women of color to find an image of an empowered strong beautiful black woman. You rarely see ads of women of color on the street where one is showing themselves as confident and relatable. By making these poster like prints, I create an environment that shows a different type of media where there is an empowered woman that one can look up to and find their own confidence and voice.
The term Morena has been used as a negative way to describe what we call today as an afro latina woman. I take back this word and flip its context by labeling the subjects who are seen as powerful and comfortable in their own skin as a morena. The installation also includes small soft sculptured underwears. The soft sculptures represent the idea of taking back the things women of color are told they are not and saying well this is what “I AM.” Underwear has forever been something that is overly sexualized and abused. The idea of making these underwear is to allow it to be seen as a more protective and valuable thing.
Link to publications:
https://nylon.com/articles/sukeban-magazine-yuki-haze-erika-bowes