LaToya Ruby Frazier Takes on Levi's (2011)

Artist and activist LaToya Ruby Frazier discusses the economic and environmental decline of her hometown, Braddock, Pennsylvania, the city that the clothing company Levi's used as an inspiration and backdrop for a major advertising campaign in 2010. Having photographed in Braddock since she was sixteen years old, Frazier's black-and-white images of her family and their surroundings present a stark contrast to the campaign images of 'urban pioneers' and slogans such as 'everybody's work is equally important'. In a performance developed in collaboration with the artist Liz Magic Laser, Frazier carries out a choreographed series of movements on the sidewalk in front of the temporary Levi's Photo Workshop in SoHo. Wearing a costume of Levi's clothes, the artist's repetitive motion ultimately destroys the jeans she's wearing.