Black Girl Magic

Black Girl Magic is a poster series featured in the G’wan Ireland Exhibition curated by Hen’s Teeth. The exhibition was an effort to uplift the community after a disheartening, lockdown summer and to shine a light on emerging designers, photographers and artists in Ireland.

Black Girl Magic celebrates Black femininity. It frames Black women as goddesses of nature, drawing power from the elements. It’s an image rarely seen, certainly not historically in fine art paintings or the rewriting of history and religion and so this became a contemporary take on classical portraiture. The series aims to give Black women a representation of themselves that reflects their beauty and power, while allowing them softness and a vulnerability that they are often denied.

Aspects of black girl culture have been exaggerated and reinterpreted, seen in the long acrylic nails as art pieces and magical hair that defies gravity. The blend of photography and illustration allows the subjects to be immersed in a fantasy world of lavender pastels and burning flames.