BLACK BOY JOY

CAN | Your School Boy Series upends expectations of uniformity, especially the way we conflate uniformity and discipline as the same thing. How does the sartorial expression of the characters in your paintings reveal a sense of self-direction that escapes the confines of uniformity? 

KK — Both private and public schools tend to adhere to a strict dress code that includes how students wear their uniforms and how groomed their hair is. Most of the uniform patterns have been around since the inception of the schools themselves, many of them using plaid, in reference to our previous English colonial past. 

Boys are told that their hair cannot be longer than a ¼ inch and any article of accessories presenting self-individuality is discouraged. Until recently, this same sentiment was present in most customer-facing jobs within The Bahamas. Many of the rules on grooming tended to be rooted in anti-Blackness under the guise of discipline within the confines of the school system and the working class.

The tryptic represents reimagined uniforms from a popular government school in The Bahamas, using modern patterns that correlate to their colour coding. These illustrations express an “other world” where tradition is maintained but freedom of expression and Blackness now is highlighted, particularly with their hair length. This aspect of Black boyhood tends to be aggressively suppressed until graduation when they are out of the school system. Living in a nation that relies on tourism has convinced people that looking “less Black” is more tolerable. This mindset is only just beginning to shift, but not fast enough for my liking. Those years of schooling are the most formative years of our lives and it is a shame it is spent convincing young men that they need to be less Black to function in the “real” world.