'Pause by Tia Blassingame

Tia Blassingame: “With its three-color, offset printed imagery and metallic, letterpress-printed text, ‘Pause consists of the octagonal accordion text block, which is held in a locket-style container with a printed cover. With its letterpress-printed, AI-generated cameo, the offset-printed and laser-cut container features a letterpress-printed, script-style dedication and colophon reminiscent of jewelry engraving. For this project, Blassingame selected a small group of Black women to complete a questionnaire about their awareness of, feelings and memories related to menopause. In the laser-cut, accordion text block, the quoted and excerpted responses were letterpress printed in a blackish-gold ink color in Bitter typeface, which plays upon the stereotype of the bitter or angry Black woman. Serving as the offset-printed backgrounds, scanned materials represent intimacy and vulnerability, softness and strength. ‘Pause is meant to celebrate and extend grace to Black women on their menopause journey, and normalize the discussion of menopause and changes to women’s bodies.