Frocasians: Moving Beyond Social Construct

Inspired by experiences of her own interracial marriage, she creates grey-scaled, abstracted figures called ‘Frocasians’ that act as a medium to investigate these contemporary social issues. Davis chose the color grey, since grey is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning it is a color ‘without color.’ Within the two presented series, "Witnesses" and "Black Edge," Davis' initiates this discourse - making such consequential but abstract themes more tangible to her audience.

The Contemporary Woman's Movement is just one social-political issue addressed in Davis’ art. Shark-cuteri , presented in the Witnesses series, creates a visual correlation between the objectification of woman to that of animals within contemporary culture. Reduced to an object of consumption, Davis' shows the feminine body (specifically female anatomy) on display like a 'piece of meat' as four men prepare to feast. Upon further examination of the painting, one sees Davis' precise attention to detail as she combines cutout paper squares including recognizable and abstracted images applied individually by hand. The paper cutouts outlined with back acrylic painting, the piece begins to take on the aesthetic of a stained glass window. She continues to add details with an ink pen and other drawing techniques.

In the ‘Black Edge’ series, the ‘Frocasian’ characters are removed from the traditional painting format. Window Dressing , a life-size black and white ink drawing applied to plywood, is suspended out from the wall entering the viewer's realm. Davis’ continues this discourse on the male objectification of the female body, as six men prey through a window as a woman is dressing. These sculptural figures explore this perpetual misogynistic behavior that has been indoctrinated within society, while investigating the physical and emotional impact it has had on the artist.

Davis explains of her stylistic change: ”These plywood sculptures emerged from the idea of deconstructing a common support medium structure - the rectangle. By separating the figures from the picture plane and installing their cut-out shapes slightly away from the wall, I am left with a more fluid creation that breaks away from traditional structure and form.”