Self Care is Self Preservation

Kimberly Marie Ashby, American

Self Care is Self Preservation, 2020

Self Care is Self Preservation by Kimberly Marie Ashby consists of a black woman surrounded by flowers and marijuana leaves. In this poster, the artist is placing marijuana in an unconventional context that portrays it as a benign and aesthetic plant like any other. This calls attention to the disproportionate number of people of color serving long sentences for nonviolent crimes of marijuana possession. Portraying marijuana in a benign, decorative way, opposes this fact and makes it appear unjust. This message is especially relevant during a time when the legalization of marijuana is highly debated and the U.S. has the highest number of incarcerated citizens in the world. Label by Jordan Stofko

Black Death

Kimberly Marie Ashby, American

Black Death, 2020

Kimberly Marie Ashby is a Philadelphian artist, activist, and doctoral candidate. In her multimedia artworks, she makes visible social justice issues in order to benefit the mental health of marginalized communities. Her collage Black Death addresses various pressing issues from 2020 – police brutality, racial inequity, mental health, and Covid-19. In this piece, a black woman is shown in grief, with her face held in two pairs of hands. This distressed woman is superimposed on a rugged graveyard, which is actually from a Brazilian cemetery struggling to keep up with the coronavirus death toll. By combining these two emotionally heavy images, Ashby demonstrates the overwhelming effects of both coronavirus and policy brutality on the physical well-being and mental health of the BIPOC communities. Label by Tori Erisman