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• 1 media/IMG_8913.JPG 2022-11-30T22:05:54+00:00 Hannah Emerson's Final Project 24 plain 2022-12-17T07:47:01+00:00  
  
  Bahamian-American artist April Bey’s You About to Lose Yo Job 'Cause You Are Detaining Me, for Nothing is a piece that is a vital part of her overall practice as an artist. This mixed media piece is part of an ongoing series of works that reflect an imaginary planet that Bey created called Atlantica. The creation of Atlantica came from a moment when Bey was made fun of for her hair at school, and when she looked for reassurance from her father, he told her that they both were aliens sent from another planet in order to observe and send back information that they found about Earth. This explanation that she received at a young age, in addition to her growing up near the ocean, and her admiration of the world of “The Little Mermaid” lead to her creating the imaginary planet of Atlantica. In Bey’s Atlantica, “Blackness, queerness and joy are honored and elevated,” and she is able to invent her own history, landscape, and people based on her own experiences and interests. In creating the world of Atlantica, she has explored many different materials and forms of art. She has created large installations and collages with an array of materials mixed together. These include using faux fur, pieces of African fabrics from female-owned businesses, photographs, digitally woven blankets, wood, resin, beads, and more. With her practice, she also likes to push materials to surprising limits and will purposefully use materials in certain ways that will upset purists in art, like sew wood into resin. Also, she compares and combines different kinds of colonialism in her work by using materials like West African beads, Chinese wax fabric, and Chinese knockoff pearls together. Her work has been described as, “bright, textural, surreal, hilarious, otherworldly, richly colored, colorfully immersive, and sparkly." This piece in the Escalette Collection accurately represents the work she does as there are bright colors, a variety of materials involved, fabrics, and connections to her identity and life experiences. 

  Overall, her work is very important in the present state of the world, especially when it comes to how Black people are viewed in society. She provides a space that honors Black culture and allows for people to exist freely without discrimination or division. She does all of this while also creating bright and inviting spaces with the use of multiple unique materials in a way that hasn’t fully been done before. 

  Inspired by Bey's piece, I have designed a mask that draws inspiration from the main aspects of her piece, which are the text, the color palette, and the materials used. My intention for this piece was to create something that people would be able to use often and that would spark important conversations on current important events happening in society. The overall design features the prominent colors of the original piece: red, yellow, and blue, as well as the patterns and textures that are present in the text of the piece, (“I will not comply”). The mask takes great inspiration from her consistent use of mixed media throughout her work as well since it is made using materials like paint and different fabrics to create an overall image. The “not” in the phrase featured on the mask is made up of a patterned fabric, similar to the original piece, and the blue text and outline of the mask also have painted details within them to acknowledge the painted details of the text and subject in her original work. If this product was actually made and distributed, it would be presented in clear packaging that would showcase the design to the viewer that will give more context to it and allow people to see the full design. 
  
   

  In addition to this mask being an object that consumers can get great use out of, it also serves the purpose of commenting on current issues in the United States. When compiling research on the phrase featured in Bey’s piece “I will not comply,” many images and articles came up that discussed how this phrase has been used by anti maskers in the past couple years since the beginning of the pandemic due to mask mandates and COVID-19 vaccination requirements. This phrase has been present on many different posters carried by protesters at rallies across the country, especially during the height of the pandemic, and on many different types of merchandise available online that allow them to showcase their views. It also has been featured in music, with an example being a song from country artist Blind Joe from 2021 titled “I Will Not Comply” that share these same beliefs, and in the title of a bill introduced to the House of Representatives, the We Will Not Comply Act, proposed by the U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene that would require United States citizens to not be discriminated against based on their vaccination status. Although there has been a long history of standing up to authority figures and not complying, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused this phrase to mostly be known in the context of resisting masks and vaccinations. With the creation and presentation of this mask, I thought it would be an interesting pairing to have this phrase used by people against the use of masks on the object that they are actively protesting against. It would be a powerful counterprotest to wear this in public where anti maskers would have to view it and reflect on their beliefs. 

  The use of this phrase on the mask in context of it being utilized in protests also further connects with the piece when looking at the title that Bey chose, You About to Lose Yo Job 'Cause You Are Detaining Me, for Nothing. This quote comes from a viral remix that was created from the words of Johnniqua Charles against uniformed authority after a misunderstanding. After this video of Charles went viral, this phrase also became a protest anthem that people would chant in unison at Black Lives Matter protests across the country in 2020. These protests, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, were two important aspects of 2020, so it is impactful to be able to create an object that takes inspiration from these events that affected the entire world and created major changes to everyday life. 
  
  
  
  Bibliography
  
  “April Bey.” Kunstmatrix, art.kunstmatrix.com/en/artwork/april-bey/you-about-to-lose-yo-job-cause-you-are-detaining-me-for-nothing-from-the-atlantica.
  
  Dexter, Henry. “April Bey Is an Emissary for the Unseen.” Cultured Mag, 23 Nov. 2021, www.culturedmag.com/article/2021/11/23/april-bey-is-an-emissary-for-the-unseen.
  
  Donoghue, Katy. “April Bey Brings the Story of Atlantica to the Bahamas and Beyond.” Whitewall, 3 Aug. 2022, whitewall.art/art/april-bey-brings-the-story-of-atlantica-to-the-bahamas-and-beyond. 
  
  Miranda, Carolina A. “Love of a Black Planet: Artist April Bey’s Atlantica Soars beyond Wakanda.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 18 Aug. 2021, https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2021-08-18/april-bey-conjures-afrofuturist-world-atlantica-caam. 

  
  Photo and Video Sources:
  
  https://www.ajc.com/news/local/group-protests-georgia-coronavirus-related-closures/FR0iqCeYMOUj7XGIk7rkUO/
  
  https://www.knau.org/knau-and-arizona-news/2020-07-15/twitter-analysis-shows-arizona-is-1-in-anti-face-mask-activity
  
  https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2020/07/20/coronavirus-indiana-anti-mask-rally-statehouse/5469818002/
  
  https://www.nbc15.com/2020/07/23/protesters-rally-downtown-against-mask-mandate/
  
  https://youtu.be/sqdXJIrMuLA
  
  https://youtu.be/Jtdr5LERifQ
  
  https://chapman.emuseum.com/objects/1731/you-about-to-lose-yo-job-cause-you-are-detaining-me-for-no?ctx=cc88fb387c7156d9437d73aca16e973cdefb267b&idx=0
  
  https://www.zazzle.com/anti_mask_do_not_comply_coaster-174200417019676917?srsltid=AYJSbAcpDDOzhC4O1mwsakH1Z57HPsiQzVoCmo0Q_4D3IZnZZqZHOob4Ji4
  
  https://nvdteeshirt.com/product/official-i-will-not-comply-to-communism-t-shirt/
  
  https://www.strugglejennings.com/product-page/i-will-not-comply-hoodie