LAETITIA KY is an ARTIST and ACTIVIST, tackling a myriad of injustices, topics, and political statements. KY is using her hair to create sculptures; her pieces are moments, emotions, created in afro-textured hair. EACH ONE DISPLAYED ON HER HEAD.
KY explained that ‘appreciating my hair has let me appreciate other things that made me Black. Like my skin. I’m very dark-skinned and the beautiful Ivorian woman is supposed to be light-skinned. When I started to love my hair, I started to love my skin, and I started to love the fact that I was Black. And when I started to love the fact that I was Black, it helped me to love the fact that I was a woman. Loving one thing led me to love another thing. Maybe what I was doing was more powerful than I thought’. And this has led Ky to create these hair sculptures to tackle racism, sexism, and even abortion laws. Do yourself a favour and watch a clip here.
In 2017, she designed a sculpture of a man looking up a woman’s skirt, commenting on sexual harassment and victim shaming. Earlier this summer, in protest of American anti-abortion laws, she unveiled an image of uterus with fallopian tubes giving a massive ‘fuck you’.
Ky explained to Elle magazine: ‘Thousands of people can say the same thing without it having the same impact. What makes the difference is the way you say it. Art makes it possible to reach more people because it finds an original, particular way to speak about the subject so that many people will linger.’
Authenticity is at the core of all of her art: authenticity, exploring gender, empowering women and racial inequality. THIS. IS. SO. BRILLIANT.
By Sophia Collins
April 2022
LAETITA KY: ARTIST, ACTIVIST.
LAETITIA KY is an ARTIST and ACTIVIST, tackling a myriad of injustices, topics, and political statements. KY is using her hair to create sculptures; her pieces are moments, emotions, created in afro-textured hair. EACH ONE DISPLAYED ON HER HEAD.
KY explained that ‘appreciating my hair has let me appreciate other things that made me Black. Like my skin. I’m very dark-skinned and the beautiful Ivorian woman is supposed to be light-skinned. When I started to love my hair, I started to love my skin, and I started to love the fact that I was Black. And when I started to love the fact that I was Black, it helped me to love the fact that I was a woman. Loving one thing led me to love another thing. Maybe what I was doing was more powerful than I thought’. And this has led Ky to create these hair sculptures to tackle racism, sexism, and even abortion laws. Do yourself a favour and watch a clip here.
In 2017, she designed a sculpture of a man looking up a woman’s skirt, commenting on sexual harassment and victim shaming. Earlier this summer, in protest of American anti-abortion laws, she unveiled an image of uterus with fallopian tubes giving a massive ‘fuck you’.
Ky explained to Elle magazine: ‘Thousands of people can say the same thing without it having the same impact. What makes the difference is the way you say it. Art makes it possible to reach more people because it finds an original, particular way to speak about the subject so that many people will linger.’
Authenticity is at the core of all of her art: authenticity, exploring gender, empowering women and racial inequality. THIS. IS. SO. BRILLIANT.
By Sophia Collins