Multisite installation part of UMaine Black History Month observance

A photography exhibition by intermedia MFA student Eleanor Kipping, installed in multiple locations across campus, will be a cornerstone of UMaine’s Black History Month observance this year.

Photos in the exhibit, “Brown Paper Bag Test,” will be displayed in the Memorial Union, Fogler Library, New Balance Student Recreation Center and other locations on campus throughout February.

Brown paper bags were once used as a point of comparison, with favor given to people with fair skin, Kipping says. The practice that helped define standards of beauty in the black community has been perpetuated in popular culture, and has had a profound impact on women.

“The paper bag test was a continued practice long after slavery was abolished and paved the road for contemporary forms of colorism that we see today,” Kipping says.

Kipping’s research-based interdisciplinary scholarship explores the black female experience as “other” in the United States, concentrating on hair politics, colorism and racial passing. She draws heavily on black her/history, political narratives and popular culture, and works primarily in performance and installation.

For her project, Kipping photographed and interviewed women of color in New York City who volunteered to talk about their interpersonal experiences and views on hair politics and colorism. Portraits of the women in “Brown Paper Bag Test” are complemented by their narratives, will be available in audio files online.

While each woman’s experience is unique, “a uniformity in voice comments on normality of the black female experience,” Kipping says.

Kipping says “Brown Paper Bag Test” is an invitation for audiences to explore what role they might play in the narrative.