Exhibit showing antique dolls of color is one of several local programs planned for Black History Month timesreview.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from timesreview.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Sana Musasama: Art as an agent of change
Artist Sana Musasama. (courtesy of CU Boulder)
Visual artist Sana Musasama led a virtual lecture March 9, hosted by the University of Colorado Boulder Arts and Art History Program. The lecture focused on her personal artwork, which addresses themes of feminism, culture, and community through a ceramics emphasis.
As an avid world traveler, Musasama gained her greatest artistic inspiration from seeing and experiencing different parts of the world. Her travels have spanned widely, from Cambodia to West Africa to Vietnam and beyond, and encompass a number of cultures, language, and lifestyles.
“I grew up learning about people from around the world, about different languages spoken, foods eaten, and clothes worn,” Musasama said. “I grew up with this love of difference instead of a fear of difference, so it wasn’t hard for me to begin traveling around the world thirty years ago.”
The Racial Symbolism of the Topsy-Turvy Doll
The uncertain meaning behind a half-black, half-white, two-headed toy: An Object Lesson
K. Tait Jarboe / Zak Bickel / The Atlantic
The doll is two-headed and two-bodied one black body and one white, conjoined at the lower waist where the hips and legs would ordinarily be. The lining of one s dress is the outside of the other’s, so that the skirt flips over to conceal one body when the other is upright. Two dolls in one, yet only one can be played with at a time.
The topsy-turvy doll, as it’s known, most likely originated in American plantation nurseries of the early 19th century. By the mid-20th century, they’d grown so popular that they were mass-manufactured and widely available in department stores across the country, but today, they’re found mostly in museums, privatecollections, and contemporaryart. In recent years, the dolls have seen a renewed interest from collectors and scholars alike, largely motivated by the ongoing