Comic, Grace An, sunshinable.com,[email protected], price not listed
In this comic, Toronto-based artist Grace An writes about identity, friendship, love, and self-perception. This work, like many of her others, asks the reader to engage in an existential self-reflective process: Who are you? Who am I? Why am I lonely? Which relationships are truly valuable?
The comic utilizes simple lines and colours. An critiques racism and socio-cultural norms by making the main character yellow with a head shape reminiscent of a banana. The work feels like it could sit in a room as a more accessible cousin of Lena Dunham’s Girls and Sheila Heti’s work. All three creators deal with the self as it is impacted by fierce societal, capitalist, and cultural expectations. All deal with feelings of inadequacy and creative stagnation within a landscape of the interrogation of the social constructs that create those feelings in the first place.
Where An takes it further is in her deconstruction of racialized and marginalized bodies, a crucial element missing from other pop culture interpretations of 21st century 20-somethings. (CJ Blennerhassett)