A S H L E Y

S C O T T

October 18. 2024 – January 31. 2025

in cooperation with White Square Gallery

The exhibition sheds light on the ambivalent relationship to black women since the beginning of colonization.

On the one hand, the hypersexualized description of the strong, fertile woman who is available at a young age and a nanny and cooking mother in adulthood, and on the other hand, the deep fear of white men of black women and the fear of white women for their men.

The black woman freed from these stereotypes only appears sporadically in art.

The artist deals with the beauty of the female body and hairstyles and tries to illuminate the uniqueness of women free from colonial and mainstream influences.

The works are highly political.

The scars, which are seen as decorative scars in the west, have completely different meanings in black culture, and were used not only for religious reasons but also to deliberately disfigure women; they became unattractive as slaves; braiding hair served as a means of communication and veiled messages.

The successful colonization of Africa and the oppression of African Americans to this day have caused all of these original meanings to be forgotten.

Scars are ugly and a sign of primitive habits, hairstyles should correspond to western ideals, black curly hair is unattractive, skin should be as light as possible, breasts should correspond to modern ideas of beauty.

The artist wants to show that the beginnings of racism are still fully valid and that the primitive ways of looking at things in the “old world” are fully functional in their simplicity.

The only difference is that those affected have now become part of the racist world due to their attempts at assimilation.