Roussell’s undergraduate capstone piece, Bleach, is a performative multimedia commentary on ancestry, white washing, and cultural assimilation as a means of survival.

Bleach emerged at the crossroads of Roussell’s technical skills and aesthetic purpose, as it utilizes their backgrounds in dance and athletic performance, projections and image mapping, sound and lighting design, time-based sculpture, symbolic storytelling, and the manipulation of audience perspective. The work features an interaction of media and reality, as the performer’s body becomes the canvas for projected images in some moments, and is physically and emotionally coerced by the images in others.

Throughout the performance, the self-awareness of the audience is made imperative by the incorporation of reflective surfaces and Roussell’s direct interaction with those present. These elements work together to create an abstracted view of America’s systemic cultural erasure, and asks the inevitable question: how does each person contribute to this traumatic denial of personhood?