Iona Rozeal Brown
Iona
Rozeal Brown’s work departs from the conventions of Ukiyo-e prints
and the signs of hip hop culture. Recognizable brand names such as Burberry,
Adidas, Crystal Champagne, as well as hairstyles and gestures, are taken
from their original context and transposed within the visual language
of the Japanese prints of the 19th century. Brown’s work departs
from the global phenomenon that Hip Hop has become. She addresses this
fact not as merely musical but more significantly as cultural. The underlying
question in her work seems to be ‘What happens to Black culture
if it is no longer black?’ Simultaneously she confronts the very
contemporary potential of the mutability of individual identification
and outdated ideas about race and culture.
The
use of blackface to cover not an implied whiteness, a gesture both derisive
and mocking, but an Asian face subverts the meaning while removing the
mean-ness. Instead, it seems she works toward a sense of dialogue and
interchange wherein her characters –DJ’s, Rappers, Gangsters,
etc.- become a new hybrid, neither exclusively Japanese nor Black. The
third space, between and outside these two historically recognized sites,
is in many ways the defining genre of the new millennium. As a people
we no longer define ourselves as American, Asian or Black, but as African-American,
Asian-American and any other number of hyphenated selves.