MELNxAU (Melanated Gold) series, 2018

That Melanin though, Drippin Melanin,and many more hash tags filled 2017 social media that celebrated the honey comb shaped collection of Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen and Nitrogen atoms that gives people of color our rich pigmentation. Furthermore, scientist have discovered that melanin is a high-conductivity organic semiconductor (National Center for Biotechnology Information). As an organic semiconductor, melanin can conduct electric currents and energies just like a synthetic semiconductor; Gold is a conductor and excellent one for electricity. Although all humans have melanin produced by melanocytes in the epidermis, the concentration of melanin can be expressed in various hues (which gives us our skin tones). Additionally, Melanin's greatest function is necessary for the prevention of skin cancer and protection from the UV rays of the sun. It is also the same beautiful hues that had us worth more than gold even in the darkest part of history. It was not just our bodies that would be forced to labor in a foreign land, but the traditions, rituals, arts, knowledge, philosophy and land that would be raped and stripped from our ancestors.