The Restoration is a series I’ve been developing over the past few years. This clip shares a small glimpse into the process of "restoring" a doll. In this body of work, I reclaim and transform degrading figurines and memorabilia (objects that still circulate in markets today) by stripping away their demeaning connotations and restoring their humanity. The process video offers a look at my methods: from the thoughtful redesign and adornment that imbues them with new meaning and dignity, to the removing of exaggerated and repainting of features used to demean and dehumanize the Black body. This process video shows the physical transformation, along with the emotional and conceptual labor involved in recontextualizing these objects. This process video captures the reclamation and restoration of figurines, addressing the narratives they originally reinforced. I am shown here restoring a Black doll once portrayed in servitude (stitched and sold as a mammy for a white child) symbolically reuniting her with her own baby, found separately at another antique shop. My mother, Pearline is shown sewing the garments while teaching the artists children how to sew. Poem read by my daughter.

The Restoration is a series I’ve been developing over the past few years. This clip shares a small glimpse into the process of "restoring" a doll. In this body of work, I reclaim and transform degrading figurines and memorabilia (objects that still circulate in markets today) by stripping away their demeaning connotations and restoring their humanity. The process video offers a look at my methods: from the thoughtful redesign and adornment that imbues them with new meaning and dignity, to the removing of exaggerated and repainting of features used to demean and dehumanize the Black body. This process video shows the physical transformation, along with the emotional and conceptual labor involved in recontextualizing these objects. Alt-Text:A young Black girl sits against Paul Cézanne’s Houses in Provence: The Riaux Valley near L’Estaque, c. 1883 (https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.54129.html) She wears a deep blue coat with gold trim, fastened with castings of a repurposed Blackamoor brooch, transforming racialized imagery into a symbol of reclamation. Her long braids rest on her shoulders. In her lap, a once dehumanizing Black doll, carefully restored. Her exaggerated features removed, her face delicately restored, and her original garments replaced with a dress sewn by the artist’s mother. The doll wears a golden headwrap adorned with a tiny golden brooch, a nod to the tignon.

The Restoration is a series I’ve been developing over the past few years. This clip shares a small glimpse into the process of "restoring" a doll. In this body of work, I reclaim and transform degrading figurines and memorabilia (objects that still circulate in markets today) by stripping away their demeaning connotations and restoring their humanity. The process video offers a look at my methods: from the thoughtful redesign and adornment that imbues them with new meaning and dignity, to the removing of exaggerated and repainting of features used to demean and dehumanize the Black body. This process video shows the physical transformation, along with the emotional and conceptual labor involved in recontextualizing these objects. Alt-Text A photographic portrait of a young Black girl seated against Paul Cézanne’s Landscape near Paris, c. 1876 (https://www.nga.gov/https:/media.nga.gov/iiif/b41b3b70-af77-439b-a980-4e1434070111/full/full/0/default.jpg). She wears a heavily beaded and decorated black and gold jacket adorned with Blackamoor brooches and castings, as well as a collection of heirlooms passed down from the artist’s grandparents and father, and other found objects. Her hair is styled in two long plaits wrapped at the ends with golden thread. She holds a once racialized doll, now carefully reclaimed. His stained garments have been replaced with a black and gold boy’s suit, sewn by the artist’s mother, Pearl, to coordinate with the girl’s clothing. His face has been repainted by the artist, removing his white buttoned eyes and bright red circular mouth. Now transformed into a cherished heirloom, the doll’s “restoration” is an act of care, dignity, and recontextualization.

The Restoration is a series I’ve been developing over the past few years. This clip shares a small glimpse into the process of "restoring" a doll. In this body of work, I reclaim and transform degrading figurines and memorabilia (objects that still circulate in markets today) by stripping away their demeaning connotations and restoring their humanity. The process video offers a look at my methods: from the thoughtful redesign and adornment that imbues them with new meaning and dignity, to the removing of exaggerated and repainting of features used to demean and dehumanize the Black body. This process video shows the physical transformation, along with the emotional and conceptual labor involved in recontextualizing these objects. From the 19th and early 20th centuries, in the United States, “alligator bait” imagery depicted mainly Black children as bait to lure alligators. This imagery appeared in postcards, comics, figurines, sheet music, and more. A search of the Library of Congress digitized newspaper archives yields many results of news articles written about the use of Black children as bait including an article in the the Washington Times (1908) reporting that a zookeeper at the New York Zoological Gardens baited "Alligators With Pickaninnies". It is debated that there’s not enough evidence that instances like this happened, however, there’s not enough to prove it didn’t (regardless of if it was isolated or widespread). But what can absolutely not be debated is the harmful memorabilia that still circulates marketplaces as collectibles today. The found figure of a black child sitting on the back of a gator becomes the centerpiece of my Black Boy Joy, In Memoriam film, and is the same “restored” figure held by the sitter in The Restoration / Black Boy Joy, now bronzed and placed on a carousel horse. Both found objects, now transformed. The boy now sits upright, gazing upward with joy and wonder.