TO KEEP HOPE ALIVE (AFTER YVETTE MELTZER) | LARISSA ROGERS

The artwork To Keep Hope Alive (After Yvette Meltzer) is one of the most recent pieces created by the young American multidisciplinary artist LaRissa Rogers (Charlottesville, 1996).
Drawing from her personal experience as an Afro-Asian woman, Rogers positions her practice at the intersection of culture and identity, addressing themes such as colonialism, history, and memory, while raising socio-political questions.

To Keep Hope Alive (After Yvette Meltzer) is loosely inspired by Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s 18th-century painting titled Les hasards heureux de l’escarpolette (The Swing), which depicts a young woman in a pink dress maliciously swinging on a swing placed in a forest. Rogers uses this reference to explore the socio-cultural critique linked to Fragonard’s artwork, which is generally regarded as a mere creation to satisfy the whims of the high society of that era.

The artwork is part of the I’ll Fly Away series, a project composed of nine painted photographic collages. Each one is created by assembling portions of archival images with travel and Rogers’ family photographs, both in black and white and in color. These fragments are cut and reassembled, giving rise to new visual narratives.
Specifically, the main character of To Keep Hope Alive (After Yvette Meltzer) is a smiling girl standing on a swing. This figure comes from a photograph taken by photographer Yvette Meltzer at Piedmont Park, Atlanta, around 1969-1970, and is part of the Black Archives project.
In the bottom left corner of the artwork, a family member of Rogers is seen looking upward, holding a balloon, as if wishing to be carried towards the sky, just like the girl on the swing. The swing thus becomes a metaphor for freedom: an ephemeral freedom, momentarily attainable but not lasting. However, it is precisely this fleeting sensation that fuels the flame of resistance against a world dominated by prejudice and hostility.
In the background, the facade of a house is visible, overlaid with a pastel green filter. Finally, scattered across the surface of the artwork are several blue-glazed porcelain rosebuds, alternating with colorful decorative elements – flowers, branches, animals, and human figures – painted in a Rococo style.

Through her multidisciplinary practice, Rogers creates artworks rich in meaning and cultural references, seeking new pathways toward a future where colonialism has been overcome, and where Black people can lead free and peaceful lives.

LaRissa Rogers
To Keep Hope Alive (After Yvette Meltzer), 2024
Digital print, acrylic, glazed porcelain, 76.2 x 152.4 x 7.6 cm (30 x 60 x 3 in)
© Nicola Morittu. Courtesy of the artist and Super Dakota, Brussels.

LaRissa Rogers, To Keep Hope Alive (After Yvette Meltzer), 2024, detail.
Digital print, acrylic, glazed porcelain.
© Nicola Morittu. Courtesy of the artist and Super Dakota, Brussels.

09/10/24