Blue Corn/The Bodyshop
1992
Designer
Paul Davis
DIMENSIONS
59 x 40 in. (149.9 x 101.6 cm)
OBJECT NUMBER
PH.9694
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN
United States
CREDIT LINE
Poster House Permanent Collection
KEYWORDS
Corn, Food, Native American, Woman

The Body Shop is a British cosmetics and skin care company that achieved global popularity in the late 1980s. It distinguished itself from other corporations in the category by emphasizing its ethical sourcing and environmental consciousness. This is one of many posters produced by the brand to highlight those efforts. The central female figure inappropriately wears a sacred hairstyle of the Hopi known as “the squash blossom whorl.” It is traditionally worn by girls after they have ground corn at their paternal grandmother’s house during puberty ceremonies. The figure’s dress is also inauthentic; rather than plain white, Hopi weaving often features indigo and red borders as well as intricate diamond patterns that signify clan and ceremony. Blue corn is also sacred to the Hopi. Cultivated for centuries through agricultural innovation by descendants of Ancient Pueblo peoples, it is central to religious ceremonies and survival in the high desert. The poster fails to provide any information about the product it is promoting; it merely sells a romanticized view of Native culture to suggest the authenticity and purity of the brand. 

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