YEAR OF GROWTH
BY PAPI
Growing up as a mixed Black and Mexican kid, I always strugled with my identity. I wasn’t white enough for the white kids, Black enough for the Black kids, nor Mexican enough for the Mexican kids. But I just did my own damn thing. When it came to my hair is where I really struggled. I have what is deemed as “good hair” for a Black boy. I got a little afro with a curl to it. I always wanted to grow my hair out to just see what happens, but it wasnt “proper” to grow your hair out like that. And all the good looking Black kids always had fresh cuts. Being a portly felllow at a young age I wanted to do whatever to make me look better, so I kept it cut. Also my momma made me do it. But I did always dream what I would look like. Maybe like Lil Bow Wow? Lil Romeo? Bob Marley? Johnny Depp? Kid and Play? I had no clue.BY PAPI
Fast forward, here we are in 2022 January 1st and I am 27 year olds starting a year of growing my hair out. Along this journey I plan to evolve mentally, exlore my inner Blackness, shift perception of value for material and superficial things, appreciate my hair AND body for what it is, and of course finally be able to see what my hair will look like if I grew it out for a year (lineups are okay). Each week I will take a photo of my head and this sametime next year we will have a visual journey of each week. This will live as a digital installation, because quite frankly I don’t want to put this in a gallery or for anybody to ever own it. This is purely an art piece for the world and for other afro-latin kids growing up and struggling with their identity. For those of you little Black and Brown kids that are reading this...it gets WAY fucking better.
ENTER DIGITAL INSTALLATION HERE