Puking Convo
This project operates as a land for investigation and discussion of practices of appropriation within art and design practices. The initial case study is the work of Grayson Perry, which is the commissioner as well as the tutor of the project, and costumer of the final garment. Here I use a photograph of the lady Grayson aspires to look like when dressed up as his travesty alter-ego Claire – Princess Diana’s stepmother. Using it as a base to discuss through drawings various layers of the contact zone between Europe and Africa starting from contacts that happened when the Portuguese arrived in Congo and Angola in the 15th century.
‘Puking convo’ is an opportunity for a direct conversation between two subjected representations of artists. Do they operate from ‘opposite’ sides of the culture and cultural appropriation spectrum? The work acts as a trigger for discussion about matters such as hybridity within a post-colonial world, cultural and religious assimilation, nuances of cultural appropriation, art popularization, colonization ‘purposes’, masculinity, power structures, and a number of excuses used to justify the above.
