"The Paper Bag Test"

Last Thursday I left Francoise Duressé’s lecture in amazement of all that she has been through and the inspiration behind her work. Her recent work is title "The Paper Bag Test"; I had no idea this title held so much substance but as she spoke about her life it became clear. The "Paper Bag" test was an actually test at one point in history where a Black person's skin was held again a paper bag to determine if they could be accepted into certain schools. If their skin was darker than the paper bag they were looked down upon and were not accepted and but if their skin was lighter they were in the clear, so to speak. This held great meaning to Francoise because she has been ridiculed her whole life for the color of her skin. At the age of 14 she was brutally attacked by Neo-nazi skin heads and was in the hospital for a year and a coma for three days. Beyond that, she hears about her skin color from her grandmother on a regular basis who doesn't accept it. 

Her work really embodies the struggle, that still exists today, with race and the judgement of others that is based purely on the color of their skin. Franocise described a process she uses to literally beat up the canvas, which creates nice texture, but also symbolizes the anger that she still has towards her attackers. This particular series features mixed media. She also has various Black characters that are repeated throughout her work and in different ways represent who she is. I truly enjoyed learning about her work and not only does it hold great meaning but it has such great depth with layers of color and texture.