Now through April 7, the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation Center for Arts and Culture is hosting an exhibition featuring multimedia work by 10 artists exploring "the various levels of sexual exploitation and oppression suffered by young black girls across the African Diaspora." The exhibit is at the Skylight Gallery, Restoration Plaza 1368 Fulton Street, 3rd Floor (Located between Marcy and Brooklyn Avenues. Take the A/C to Nostrand Avenue and the B26 bus two blocks east along Fulton Street).
The maker of this piece, called "Forsaken," is Numa Perrier. She explains the work as follows:
"Tough burlap. Soft skin. Tough skin. Dark skin. These were the images that first came to me before I shot this series. I knew the perfect person to personify the girl/woman in these images and she trusted me enough when I told her it would be a nude shoot of her face wrapped in burlap. I led her barefoot and half clothed through a forest and captured each image in near silence. It was a moving experience for us both. This work is not so much about specific acts of violence as it is about the experience of shame and hiding in the aftermath, and the self inflicted bondage that ensues. My desire for all women is to unravel these feelings and replace them with happiness, joy, and freedom as we were intended to be."
Photo by Numa Perrier
