Brown Bag Lunch

A Redenção de Cam

english português

Brown Bag Lunch is an interactive collage inspired by the 1895 painting, Ham’s Redemption by Modesto Brocos. The project highlights how the construct of racial whiteness is named, taught, embodied, and visualized between the United States and Brazil.

This project references different culturally specific symbols tied to miscegenation. It also implicates the nuances of how racial difference and skin complexion are understood or named between two “New World'' countries with different legacies of colonization. Some of these references are specific to the history of the United States such as the Brown Paper Bag Test. Other references include a 1976 national survey conducted across Brazil where respondents were allowed to write in whatever answer they wanted when asked to declare their skin color or race. Many of the words in these survey answers took the form of food. For a full experience , please open this site on a desktop.

Inspired by asynchronous remote learning strategies, early childhood television and second-language learning in classrooms, this project will ask you to examine the following :

Resources:

“Ham’s Redemption”, Modesto Brocos ; 1895

Brown Paper Bag Test

PNAD Survey 1976
A stuffed brown paper bag sits on the floor of an old kitchen. The kitchen is made of paper and fabric. All it’s pieces straddle the present and the past with cinder block, brick, stones, and Portuguese ceramic tiles.
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Please respond to the following questions. Click "submit" once you are done.













Open the fridge, and place what you need in the bag. When you are done, exit through the door.

a toffee colored fridge

Here is your Brown Bag Lunch.

Your name is . Your race is . Your color is . The flavors are and my flavors would differ by . Before you could write your own recipes you ate .

a large brown paper bag
a pink L-shaped cabinet with a sink and stove, a sea green overhead cupboard and shelf, and Portuguese ceramic tiles a white door
a card with an orange on it in English

Your lunch is done.
Are you saving some for later?

A stuffed brown paper bag sits on top of a chocolate colored picnic bench.