Description
About this piece:
RoShamBo is an eight layer split-fountain screen print folded into a simple accordion pant zine booklet that transforms a playful format into a structure for layered storytelling. The work collapses play and critique, intimacy and distance, while aligning with my broader practice investigating what is dismissed, forgotten, or rendered invisible. Through the familiar game of paper-rock-scissors, RoShamBo becomes a metaphor for the subtle, often dismissive ways women’s labor and expertise are trivialized. A man’s hands repeatedly challenge women engaged in skilled, focused tasks, framing their efforts as a meaningless contest rather than acknowledging their value. The bright, pop-inspired visual language contrasts with underlying tension, reflecting how humor, beauty, and tradition can obscure systems of power. By exposing the ease with which cultural gestures disguise hierarchy, the work invites viewers to look beyond surfaces of play and recognize what is devalued or hidden beneath.
Materials:
ink, paper
About the artist:
Lani Shapton was born and raised along the northern California coast. She received her MFA in Printmaking from Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 2010 and soon after relocated to Miami, FL, where she currently serves as Senior Lecturer in Printmaking at the University of Miami.
Her artwork has been exhibited nationally and internationally, with shows in Argentina, Australia, Colombia, El Salvador, England, Italy, New Zealand, Wales, and extensively across the United States. Highlights include presentations at multiple Southern Graphics Council International Conferences, the Oso Bay Biennial XVII North American Printmaking Exhibition, and Volumetric Substrate, a three-person exhibition organized for the Mid America Print Council Biennial Conference at Southeast Missouri State University. Internationally, Shapton has been invited six times to participate in Diálogos e Interpretaciones, a print exchange organized by the Universidad de Caldas in Manizales, Colombia, showcased during the International Festival of Contemporary Art. Her work has also been featured in publications such as 500 Prints on Clay (Lark Books, 2012) and Stars and Stripes (Schiffer Publishing, 2015).
