Tea Time
Using the curly line paired with historical objects becomes a way to speak to issues of race, gender, beauty, class, and labor. In Sharon Norwood’s work, the curly line becomes the Black body, and at other times it lives within the decorative, ornate space that connects back to the formal language of drawing, and mark-making. The nature of Norwood’s subjects shifts between hair and line, between political and non-political. At one moment the work is read as hair, while at other times it is simply a beautiful gesture. The line serves many purposes. It is both drawing as well as a signifier for the Black body, allowing for complex, layered conversations that address ideas of displacement, otherness, and issues related to misrepresentations in popular culture.