Sarah Hudson

Putanga (2016)

3 min 34 secSingle channel / Digital Video / Colour / Sound

"The word ‘Putanga’ in the Māori language can have many different meanings. In certain contexts, it can mean outlet or vent. It can mean emergence, appearance and escape; at other times it can refer to a ‘symptom’. The loaded and layered meaning of the word Putanga, expresses the complicated and conscious relationship I have with my brown body every day." —Sarah Hudson

“A woman of colour’s self-love is political and radical, and it is unsettling for the status quo because she is choosing bravely to dismantle to narratives of racist aesthetics against her. So when people bully a girl of colour for being content and satisfied with her appearance – a reality that is subjected to racist, sexist slurs in cosmetic industries and when they tell her to be “humble” which is normative code for “Nah, you’re not special, you’re not light and delicate in a Eurocentric way” then she has every right to chew their hearts and spit them out. A non-white girl’s self-love is revolutionary and anyone trying to water it down needs to back right off.”

Mehreen Kasana

Other works by Sarah Hudson

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