Pictured above is The Brown Paper Bag Test (2016-2018) by Ashley A. Jones, which speaks to the painful legacy of colourism among African-Americans. The “paper bag test” was used as a marker of privilege and beauty—if you were lighter than the paper bag, you passed the test. The text across the bags reads: “YOUR BEAUTY IS NOT DEFINED BY THE COLOR OF YOUR SKIN.” Ashley was my studio mate when we completed the FAC Residency together in 2017.
