1990
Ain’t I A Woman
Donna James
Glace W. Lawrence
A Space, Toronto
A solo photography exhibition of 12 photographs and two composite photographs of newspaper companion advertisements. The women are photographed casually engaged in everyday activities that challenge the blatant objectification of black women captured in the personal advertisements.
Photography as a medium is unusual in its ability to preserve images in time, giving them the illusion of treasures saved. The photographs in the exhibition are my acknowledgement of black women as singular treasures.
The exhibition was my 'call and response' to the commodification of desire expressed in companion personal advertisements that I collected over a number of years from Canadian newspapers.