Rosa Johan Uddoh
Much of Rosa Johan Uddoh's work is inspired by hers and others experiences of being black. Often she uses her own body in her work whether this being as a tool, in a performance or as inspiration for her own work.
The first piece Rosa spoke about was 'Belly of the world' where she made ceramic dinnerware by pressing clay against different parts of her body. Once Rosa finished making these ceramics she hosted a dinner party for her family and friends where she served the food in these ceramics. She mentioned how she was interested in making these objects that had her human presence.
Another one of Rosa's works was a performance piece where she sat and had a hairdresser blow dry her hair straight. When performing this piece she had a microphone that recorded what Rosa could here, which was mainly just the hair dryer and then she amplified this sound to the audience, immersing them in her individual experience. This piece was playing on the idea that black women should straighten their hair to conform to western standards.
A project of Uddoh's that I really liked was a piece based on something a man said to her about black women in Cuba having to make tiles on their thighs. In response to this comment Rosa created a workshop with the idea of black women sitting in the sun with clay on their thighs to attempt to make house tiles. The workshop was hosted in a place that actually as a history of making ceramic and overall the workshop was a success getting many women to come to this workshop. Developing the project further from the workshop Rosa made a house structure using wood, she then used the clay thigh tiles to cover the roof. This house was displayed at an exhibition promoting black artist's and black feminism as she chose a particular place to display this piece.
I liked a lot of Rosa's work especially the collaborative elements of her practice, such as in 'belly of the world' Rosa hosted a dinner party with her friends and family just to watch them eat out of these crazy ceramics she had made, in the performance piece she had another person performing with her and in the last piece I mentioned she made a sculpture out of a workshop of many women to help make these tiles. It seems like collaboration is an important process in her work and I have recently discovered that collaboration is also an important process in my own practice, therefore I found Rosa's lecture extremely useful in my own work.
The first piece Rosa spoke about was 'Belly of the world' where she made ceramic dinnerware by pressing clay against different parts of her body. Once Rosa finished making these ceramics she hosted a dinner party for her family and friends where she served the food in these ceramics. She mentioned how she was interested in making these objects that had her human presence.
Another one of Rosa's works was a performance piece where she sat and had a hairdresser blow dry her hair straight. When performing this piece she had a microphone that recorded what Rosa could here, which was mainly just the hair dryer and then she amplified this sound to the audience, immersing them in her individual experience. This piece was playing on the idea that black women should straighten their hair to conform to western standards.
A project of Uddoh's that I really liked was a piece based on something a man said to her about black women in Cuba having to make tiles on their thighs. In response to this comment Rosa created a workshop with the idea of black women sitting in the sun with clay on their thighs to attempt to make house tiles. The workshop was hosted in a place that actually as a history of making ceramic and overall the workshop was a success getting many women to come to this workshop. Developing the project further from the workshop Rosa made a house structure using wood, she then used the clay thigh tiles to cover the roof. This house was displayed at an exhibition promoting black artist's and black feminism as she chose a particular place to display this piece.
I liked a lot of Rosa's work especially the collaborative elements of her practice, such as in 'belly of the world' Rosa hosted a dinner party with her friends and family just to watch them eat out of these crazy ceramics she had made, in the performance piece she had another person performing with her and in the last piece I mentioned she made a sculpture out of a workshop of many women to help make these tiles. It seems like collaboration is an important process in her work and I have recently discovered that collaboration is also an important process in my own practice, therefore I found Rosa's lecture extremely useful in my own work.
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