Reflective Summary

My inquiry also extends to the intersection of applied and fine arts, especially regarding varied audience interpretation. My practice is underpinned by themes of identity, a critique of Western knowledge systems and the Western gaze, the politics of erasure, narratives of Black women, the history of migration, and hidden knowledge. I express these explorations through performance and storytelling, with a particular focus on transnationality, the historical legacy of runaway slaves, and the agricultural contributions of the New World. The narratives I weave are frequently inspired by diasporic stories on agriculture, the symbolic transportation of seeds through cornrows and braids, and the formidable history of the Maroon women. My artistic influences include Lorna Simpson, Barbara Walker and Veronica Ryan Ultimately, my work centres on defining identity by foregrounding Black women, their historical narratives, and the cultural heritage connecting me to them.

My material investigations this year have been deeply rooted in a commitment to sustainable practices, ignited by the resourceful recycling culture within the Black diasporic community. My Caribbean grandmother's transformative 'plarn' (plastic yarn) creations were a pivotal inspiration; observing her ability to repurpose discarded materials sparked my desire to explore other avenues for recycling within my own artistic practice, directly reflecting the diasporic value of resourcefulness and creation from necessity. This led me to experiment with paper mulch, crafted from discarded scrap textbook paper, and to develop paper sculpting techniques, aiming to imbue these overlooked materials with new artistic significance. The inherent texture and prior history of the paper often guided the forms I created, presenting both challenges in manipulation and surprising opportunities for textural variation.

Charcoal, as previously mentioned, has become a cornerstone of my practice, resonating with its earthly origins and aligning with Jade Montserrat's concept of materials as symbolic negotiations of bodies in space. I employ charcoal in sticks, powder, and liquid forms to represent the Black diaspora and its embodied history. By layering it onto white book pages, I create transparencies that subtly reveal underlying text, while opaque washes obscure, initiating a visual dialogue on presence and absence. Conte and pastels, with their similar powdery textures, provide additional means for definition. A significant moment was recognising the profound impact of layering and the interplay between varying opacities in conveying the complexities of embodied history.

Workshops have profoundly influenced my artistic progression. Conversations with the plaster technician led to the creation of plaster moulds for relief sculptures, introducing the language of object, history, and memory to my practice through paper, plaster, and clay. Developing printmaking skills, particularly screen printing and its evolution to digital textile print, facilitated larger-scale explorations in illustration and textiles. Printmaking also proved instrumental in realising spoken narratives in a physical form through the creation of Zines.

My use of charcoal to represent diasporic history within spatial negotiations was directly inspired by Jade Montserrat's symbolic approach. Ingrid Pollard’s exploration of migration through found letters and postcards illuminated the sentimentality of objects and their connection to transnational identity, prompting my consideration of objects in dialogue with diasporic migration. Jeanette Ehlers' performative resistance in colonial sites informed my creation of an ancestral figure for my spoken word video, engaging with repatriation debates at the Manchester Museum. The film Dahomey further reinforced the idea of objects holding memories, the impact of transnationality, and the meeting of time periods.

The work of Kerry James Marshall and Lorna Simpson, particularly their use of monotone palettes like black and blue, influenced my exploration of representation and the celebration of Black bodies. Veronica Ryan’s paradoxical fruit and vegetable sculptures inspired my ackee series, where I recreate organic forms with paper or clay and incorporate fruit packaging as a metaphor for mass production and migration, thereby contrasting the natural and the manufactured. Maren Hassinger’s "Women's Work" performance prompted my consideration of paper as a textile and the potential for communal workshops exploring paper manipulation and the historical contributions of African women to New World agriculture.

Working in the plaster workshop expanded my sculptural vocabulary, leading to paper mulch and sheet constructions for smaller sculptures. Initially, I considered using plaster for pristine forms to comment on the commodification of African culture. However, I shifted towards paper as a carrier of knowledge and memory, using pages from research papers on maroon history to create metaphors of concealed and revealed information. Experimentation and investigation have been crucial for developing my ideas and shaping the form of my work. My interest in collage has evolved into layering handmade paper, textbook pages, and washes of paint and pastel in both two and three dimensions, creating diverse contexts, material, personal, and historical. Continuing to explore representation and erasure, I utilised charcoal's transparency for blurring and distortion, bleach for highlighting erasure, and incorporated symbolic food items like rice, grains, and seeds to reference growth and renewal, speaking to the history of agriculture and blending poetry and history within my paintings.

Taking "risks" has become integral to my practice, involving intentionally altering finished works, such as smudging charcoal drawings or purposefully breaking sculptures. These moments have fostered a less precious relationship with my creations, allowing me to view them as evolving reflections of my ideas or current state of mind.

My practice is primarily driven by an interest in accurately representing Black women in history and media, challenging the erasure of communal knowledge. The narrative of enslaved people carrying seeds in their hair, often dismissed as folklore due to a lack of "official" historical documentation, was validated through my research, underscoring the invalidation of collective knowledge. This concept informs pieces like 'Kandake,' where I layer and partially obscure pages from texts like Judith Carney's "Botanical Gardens of the Dispossessed" with paint, critiquing the whitewashing of African and Indigenous contributions. My interest in performance stems from the idea of identity as performative, shaped by societal cues, which led to a performance piece structured around my poem on the repatriation of African artefacts.

Influences such as Marlene Smith's emphasis on recognising oneself from global and historical perspectives, discussed during the 'Recentring' panel, align with my themes of transnationality and diasporic connections. Barbra Walker’s exhibition informed my use of materials and application to demonstrate erasure and recenter Black history. A lecture on the Sudanese counter-revolution and the figure of 'Kandake' further inspired my exploration of resistance and the reclaiming of historical narratives. My work positions itself within the broader resistance of Black culture, engaging with conversations around repatriation, the misrepresentation of Black bodies and access to space, and inaccurate historical accounts of African and Indigenous contributions to the New World. It explores transnational identity in relation to 'home' and representation, further deepened by research into Nubian history and female-led farming.

My engagement with wider professional skills has significantly impacted my practice. Co-organising an art and fashion exhibition, which included zine creation and a spoken word performance, provided invaluable networking and promotional insights. Co-founding a community interest company focused on creative workshops for young Afro-Caribbean individuals, emphasising Black history education, led to attending talks on funding and bid writing. Weekly team meetings facilitate consistent planning and progress, culminating in our first workshop, a sip and paint event for Africa Day at Factory International. Jade Foster’s artist talk on resourcing Black artists was particularly impactful, leading to a personal connection and exchange of contact details. Attending Future Now provided information on art therapy as a potential career path I am currently exploring. My successful Vertical Gallery commission, involving textile dyeing, screen printing, and digital textile print, enhanced my technical skills and understanding of large-scale work and commissions, supported by professional guidance. Additionally, volunteering to create carnival costumes for Jett Black’s dance troop, participating in workshops led by experienced designers, offered valuable communal experience, networking, and the acquisition of large-scale costume design skills.

My work aims to communicate ideas through objects that hold stories and memories, critiquing historical narratives and expanding on overlooked histories with visuals and textures. Pieces like "Grounded Seeds" and the ackee sculptures, incorporating found objects and excerpts from "Botanical Gardens of the Dispossessed," connect displaced objects, knowledge, and people, metaphorically piecing together fragmented histories. While my understanding of identity has evolved, I consistently aim for the audience to recognise the profound impact of history and place on identity. For my degree show, I intend to contrast the often cold aesthetic of a gallery with cultural artefacts and a sense of communal presence, serving as a further critique of the lack of accurate representation in institutional spaces. The arrangement of my pieces creates a stage for my spoken word character, fostering an immersive experience. My intended audience includes those who enjoy storytelling, are passionate about retelling Black history, and particularly the Black diaspora, who can intimately recognise the cultural and historical references. Veronica Ryan’s abstract use of familiar objects, like fruit nettings, and the broader museum context, informed my presentation, reimagining the archive as an accessible space for diasporic connection and self-discovery.

A critical feedback session with my tutor, Oran, suggesting cardboard as a canvas, significantly shifted my approach to drawing. Going forward, I plan to further explore the connection between identity and place, deepen my research into the history of agriculture within the African diaspora, and continue sharing my skills through community-based workshops, potentially expanding into costume design.