Cultural Appropriation Series

We were individually tasked to create and design a poster series that depicted a relevant social or political issue related to race and/or culture. I addressed the issue of cultural appropriation. 

a different angle

I was inspired by reveals created from ripped posters and the personal, human touch that the ripped edge texture had. Ripped posters reminded me of collages or inspiration books made from cutouts of magazines––and the holes created after the images are gone.

rip away

The process involved photographing models who have articles of clothing or hairstyles that they’ve seen privileged figures make popular or “trendy” without acknowledging the source or history. I asked the models to imagine them losing these cultural symbols––as if someone tore them away from their body.

rip away

In order to mimic the roughness of tear, the ripping effect was done on printed photographs by the hand model. The written quotes were borrowed from various opinion articles on cultural appropriation that I thought held power.