What do you know about the South? Or better yet, what have you been taught about the South? I think that is a better place to start. For many people who have never been or are not familiar they may have an image of farmland and dirt roads or even the southern hospitality and soul food or poor folks who are uneducated and have never left their state. But for us who were born and raised here, we tell a very different story. I thought while being in 2023 we would be past these stereotypical narratives that have come from the past of the South but the more I travel and spoke to different people the more I realized how little is known by non-southern people about the culture of the South and especially the artists that come from it.
What is not lost on me though is the amazing work of so many Southern scholars, public figures, activists, and artists who have been shedding a light on the South and its culture, but does that light matter if no one is looking? The idea of being seen has played a huge role in the creation of this project. How are we seen? How do we see? What do people choose to look at? And who is worth being seen?
Thinking about these questions led me on a journey of trying to see as much Southern art as I could. When you grow up with something and you’ve never been without it, it can be hard to see it from the outside and be aware of just how deeply rooted you are in a community and culture.
During this time when I took a step away to just observe, I realized how important right now is for southern artists. The more I saw, the more it became glaringly apparent to me that we are indeed in the middle of a new creative movement, a Black Renaissance. As Ibram X. Kendi writes, “We are living in a time when the white gaze remains ever present in American life, but is hardly dominant among today’s assemblage of courageous Black creators. We are living in the time of a new renaissance—what we are calling the Black Renaissance—the third great cultural revival of Black Americans, after the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, after the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Black creators today were nurtured by these past cultural revivals—and all those brilliant creators who sustained Black Arts during the 1980s and 1990s. But if the Harlem Renaissance stirred Black people to see themselves, if the Black Arts Movement stirred Black people to love themselves, then the Black Renaissance is stirring Black people to be themselves. Totally. Unapologetically. Freely” (Kendi 2021).
This idea proposed by Kendi is what has led me to pursue this project with such urgency. It is here and now that history is in the making. The Southern Black artists of today are showing us that they are proud of their identity and they want to show it to the rest of the world. Through the interviews that you will find in the film and this accompanying book, you will get a rare look into why these artists choose to be so vulnerable and let people share an intimate look into their world. Coming back to the idea of being seen, these artists are giving people a direct view of Black life through a Black lens. This centering of the Black perspective is what makes their art so profound. They are simply unconcerned of the narratives of mass media which have always centered the global minorities gaze. By viewing Southern Black life through a Black lens we are being authentically us and creating from a place of safety and vulnerability.
Creating in the South, there is a certain amount of the artist’s hand and home that can be seen in everything we do. Craft art and DIY processes have been the root of many Southern Black artists’ work across time. Coming from a region that is not considered, by the larger art community, to be a mecca of creation, we simply do not have access to the same resources, that in New York, London, or Paris would come a dime-a-dozen. We understand that to some extent we have to make our opportunities and institutions ourselves. This mindset has caused us to have a unique perspective when it comes to our art-making processes. We use unconventional methods, DIY construction, and found objects and have a passion that is fueled by wanting to have a voice in the chaotic territory that is the broader art world. Thanks to growing up with the internet, we see what is possible and we know it can be done but without the resources readily accessible, we must become innovators to push a path forward for ourselves.
This is where community becomes a vital pillar for us. Community is and has always been the foundation of southern Black Americans. Our families have been creating spaces that foster growth and take care of each other since before slavery. We have a sense of collective that has brought us through a tumultuous past to a hopeful and prosperous future. But this might just be wishful thinking on my end because the United States is a country that no matter the amount of progress we make, hates Black people and consistently and systematically punishes us. As much as our culture is massproduced for consumption around the world, one would think that our culture would be valued and protected, but instead, it is mocked and taken in vain only to be made into entertainment for non-black audiences.
From the conversations you will read in this book, you will find comradery and stories centering not only on our artwork but also on growth, vulnerability, healing, home, identity, family, and most importantly, community. Because we all carry the same responsibility of shining lights into the diverse world that is the Black American South.
The suBLACK book is meant to accompany the film in a gallery setting where a viewer may want more information from the artists featured in the film. The book contains ten chapters of interview transcripts and five extra chapters of material written by me that supplement the overall theme of the film. Working on the book has been the easiest part of this entire creation process. I was able to fully voice my thoughts into one object that also contained the voice of the artists and their work.
The book can give viewers who are not a part of my target audience some insight into why this project is important and needed. It is not meant to be a history lesson, but simply a guide for the viewing of the film. You can view the full book here.
Creative Direction
Freedom and Joy captured in an editorial for Art Concept Magazine
re•vis•it is an editorial photo narrative that represents a feeling of nostalgia for a time one was never a part of. In this series of photographs, the viewer follows four women as they return to their hometown to explore the city they grew up in and revisit a place that not only shaped them into the adults they are now but also brought them together as friends—a bond that they kept strong into their adulthood. The viewer goes on a journey of rediscovery with the women. The women experience many feelings on this journey as they remember what it was like to be carefree teens before they had the responsibilities of adulthood. The transition from high school to college to the real world can be particularly rough if one forgets how to be carefree and enjoy the small moments in life. As an artist and college student, I believe that we can sometimes get caught up in trying to have it all together when in reality everyone is still trying to figure out some aspect of their life. With re•vis•it, I purposely brought together a team of very amazing, creative women to create this series; if it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t have been able to capture the emotions of joy and freedom as easily as we did.
Creative Directed and Produced by Caroline Japal
Photography by Ashley Kickliter
Styling and Makeup by Hannah Riley assisted by Chloe Lillaine
Models: Sabina Vafina, Alexandra Huryn, Micha Palmer, and Tiana Bryant.
Photography
Research
A non-traditional look at southern youth.
Youth is universal, yet the experience of adolescence is different from person to person. Coming of age—the search of self and tribe—is confusing, complicated and trying. For this reason, the journey has been heavily documented in photography. For example, photographers as diverse as Wolfgang Tillmans, Larry Clark and Adrienne Salinger have focused on specific subcultures and documented the lives of youths categorized by subcultures. While subcultures still exist today, they have become more complex with easy access to ideas and information. The defining characteristics of how these subcultures express themselves through dress, music taste, beliefs, and mannerisms have started to change and evolve. As a result, we have access to images of specific subcultures define in well-known places, but few photographic series documenting the everyday young person. Especially in the South.
Youth Expressions is a series of images featuring young people from the ages of 18–25 who are coming of age in Birmingham, Alabama. Change happening in Birmingham is evident in almost every aspect of the city from the influx of small businesses to acquiring our own professional soccer team, but most excitingly in the community of adolescents and young adults. Birmingham’s youth are actively creating spaces for young artists to thrive in, which in turn is making Birmingham a cosmopolitan center for art and culture. Because the South is viewed as a place of racial and political unrest, the subject of youth experience has been overlooked here. What I hope to highlight is how the lines between certain groups are becoming more fluid through collective consciousness, identity, and individuality. Youth Expressions discloses the dissolving of these borders.
Youth Expressions was exhibited in Sella-Granata Art Gallery in Tuscaloosa, Alabama from November 19 - 29, 2018
In this zine I will investigate the representation of time in cinema by focusing on what lies at the intersection of time and nostalgia within art house cinema. Each section has been written as stand-alone essays which individually address smaller topics within the umbrella theme of the representation of time in cinema. I have put a lot of thought into the materiality and construction of this zine as well. This zine is made in an accordion style which allows for the reader to experience it front to back and vice versa, creating a loop that does not have to be linear but also is continuous. Along with these texts are images, both from my research on the topic and other art house films that address time differently than the ordinary Hollywood blockbuster would. In this zine you will find an introduction that consists of what I believe lies at the intersection of nostalgia, art house cinema, and time, next we will focus on what all these terms mean and how they can be used together to create unconventional narratives, and finally we will look at how all of these topics come together and interplay in films such as Wong Kar-Wai’s 2000 romance drama In the Mood for Love, Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1975 drama Mirror, and Akira Kurosawa’s 1990 magical realism drama Dreams. My hope is that you, the reader, who is holding this zine will find yourself venturing through the different sections, going forwards, backwards and, hopefully completely out of order, finding something interesting that you may not have thought about before. The way in which I have laid out my zine is purposeful to mirror my thesis of what is at intersection of time, nostalgia, and art house cinema?
Read the full zine here
Creative Director and Installation Logistics
Cultured to Create was founded in 2019 by Asthetik Bham & a small group of Birmingham Creatives with varying backgrounds, with the sole purpose to highlight local artist talent via collaboration with local brands. Our mission is to bridge the gap in culture, education, and community by creating a platform of opportunities through creative experiences. It is through these unique experiences that we are able to help foster and push brand awareness for many companies along with the artist talent right here within the city.
Our primary focus is aimed at unique creative experiences to help brands and artists jointly tell a story to the desired target market through experiential marketing. Now that social media has taken on a whole society of its own, it's important for brands and artists to stay connected to create meaningful engagements for various markets.
Creative Direction
Photography
Retouching
Photography
Retouching
Color Grading
An editorial that captures the bold beauty of the 80’s
Creative directed by Brianna Madry, And the Category Is… shows three women in three scenarios from the same concept. “The 80’s and Hypersexulized Femininity: The Supermodel Effect” “Mannequin vs. Model” “Bold & The Beautiful: Accessorizing With Black Style Influences.”
BOLD shot for Belladonna Magazine — Gold Soul Issue
Creative Direction & Photography // Caroline Japal @carolinejapal
Styling // Saige Pilgrim @saige_pilgrim
Makeup // Marliceia Chavers @marliceiachaversartistry
Models // Lana Watkins @fierte_ Maacah Davis @maacahdavis
BRIEF Your task is to create and then present as a group A Meditation on A Black Square. To explain further: the black square has an iconic status in the visual culture of western art history, but you should not necessarily just focus on that aspect. Instead, in this context, the black square is a starting point for you to explore the possibilities of a brief that is centred on abstraction, how you can deal with abstraction, how you tackle abstract ideas and problems, and the potential it offers to invent and interpret through your interaction with each other.
Can you find a way to use abstraction to challenge dominant systems or meanings?
Can you use abstraction and the idea of the square in a new context or contemporary setting?
Can you use abstraction to explore hidden often unseen or unexpressed emotions?
TIMELINE 2.5 weeks
OUTCOME Keeping in mind ideas of abstraction and layers (physical and metaphorical) we created a black square made out of individual black squares to visualize the idea of there being more to it than what the artist chose to show. There is an unknown amount of depth between the original white canvas and the final black square that we end up looking at.
Founder
Editor in Chief
Art Concept Magazine is a digital magazine that highlights artists and how their personal story influences their art. I created Art Concept Magazine in January 2017. I and the founder, Editor-in-Chief, and producer. I do everything for the magazine from social media to artist research to layout and design. Art Concept Magazine is my passion project and I plan to keep releasing issues that highlight new and upcoming artists for as long as I can.
BRIEF We want you to create an outcome based on and inspired by the imaginary world of the short story ‘The library of Babel’ by Jorge Luis Borges.
Through this brief, we challenge you to navigate in and create proposals for a complex (modern) world. You are free to focus on one element of the story or focus on one possible book that could be found in the library of babel.
Work within the magic-realist world, or translate it to the current reality - but you should use the story as the basis to critique or highlight a complex contemporary issue or societal trend.
OUTCOMES For this brief you will work in pairs:
Part A: Together you will choose a subject area/ topic, a modern-day complexity to explore.
You will find and research this subject as a pair and then each create a fictional book cover for the subject. This can be presented however you prefer.
Part B: Independently but in communication you will produce final creative outcomes of a re-imagined storyboard that reflects your book. To be presented as a two-part project - like volume I and II, or two sides of the same coin.
It is important to communicate throughout the process. The two projects will be presented together so need to work together conceptually and perhaps aesthetically. You have your own personal autonomy to produce the work that you wish to within the scope of the project.
TIMELINE 2.5 weeks
Photography
Creative Direction
my story, but on film.
Unfilmbleue is a personal project of mine where I document my everyday life with friends and family on film. please enjoy the craziness and see more over on Instagram @unfilmbleue
Photography
Videography
Creative Direction
Production
TrynaB is an online store specializing in reworked thrifted items and accessories found and handmade by Leslie Gomez.
I worked alongside Gomez to conceptualize, produce, and shoot original content for online and digital media platforms. I shot and edited product, lifestyle, and editorial content for the Tryna B online store and social media, some of which were featured on various media outlets and pages including Hypebae and CNK Daily. Check out the online store, their Instagram and youtube.