This was a powerful show. I’m really inspired by LaToya Ruby Frazier after seeing this, knowing that she started much of this work as a teenager and is such a powerhouse at only 30. Basically, she makes me want to step up my game.
Frazier’s upbringing in Braddock, Pennsylvania, was imprinted by the drastic downsizing of the Pittsburgh-area town’s Edgar Thomson Steel Works in the early 80s that prompted many residents to flee. Homes and businesses were abandoned, infrastructure and amenities crumbled, the national crack epidemic took hold, and urban families found themselves subject to widespread vilification. … Like many, Frazier believes industrial pollution has sickened a disproportional number of Braddock residents. She suffers from lupus, her mother has cancer and a neurological disorder, and Grandma Ruby died of complications related to pancreatic cancer.
— http://www.icaboston.org/exhibitions/exhibit/LaToya_Ruby_Frazier/
LaToya Ruby Frazier, “Grandma Ruby Smoking Pall Malls”, 2011
Her work is intensely personal and specifically deals with the issues her hometown faces, but it speaks to issues of working class poverty and lack of healthcare that are widespread across the country. I found it easy to see my family in her family.
LaToya Ruby Frazier, Self-Portrait (United States Steel), Digital Video Transfer to DVD
Color, Sound, 3:28 Minutes[source]
liked this video piece, a self-portrait where Frazier presents herself breathing in and out deeply as footage of the Steel Mill shows gaseous emissions pouring into the air of Braddock. Compositionally, the steel mill dominates the image; it’s influence on Frazier, her home, her family, and her health is huge. I liked the relationship between this piece and the photograph of Frazier’s grandmother smoking in her living room, which were installed on opposite sides of a wall within the gallery. Both images concentrate on respiration, and breathing in these toxic chemicals. I connected with the theme of respiration and sickness in these pieces, thinking about my father’s cancer.
DETOX (Braddock U.P.M.C.), 2011, Digital Video Transfer to DVD, Color, Sound, 22:23 minutes[source]
In DETOX (U.P.M.C.), Frazier documents herself and her mother undergoing an ionic detox footbath. In such a detox, “toxins from the body are released through the pores of the feet… The water is said to change different colors as the initiated electric charge applied pulls all of the toxins from the organs.” (– http://kiffecoco.com/blog/ffecoco.com/2011/02/beauty-in-imperfection-latoya-ruby.html) I feel like it’s worth noting that in Googling that term, all of the highest results contained either the word “sham” or hoax.” The detox session is cut with footage of Frazier’s mother sitting on her bed as Frazier asks her to speak about her illness and her unsparing opinions of what is going on in Braddock. At one point, Frazier situates the camera between her legs, zooming in on the footbath, which at this point is a frothy, orange and green colored slop. From this vantage point, I felt like I was sitting in her chair. I am really interested in the way that Frazier uses personal documentary to bring attention to the corruption in Braddock and the country at large.