Recreates, analyzes, and presents the memory of the artist’s Great Grandma gifting her a white blonde doll with blue eyes painted brown because there were no black dolls in the stores where she lived. “ A Wilmington Doll” Uses a blend of keyed live action, stop-motion, and hand-drawn animation to establish the malleable nature of memory. A physical painted doll exist in the installation space as a eerie form reminding the audience of the reality of the doll existing outside of the memories. Jasmine Best takes the racial, southern, and domestic upbringing she, and past generations of woman in her family have had, and place it in a new context.
A Wilmington Doll creates a platform for discussion for black femininity in predominantly white spaces as well as creates a vehicle where the audience can make connections of representation, or lack there of, in their own youth and how that effected them.