I am so pleased to have been select for the Picture This ‘Small Wonders’ scheme, I now know I was one of two selected from 50 submissions, so feel honoured. I am with the help of the scheme beginning to piece together ideas for the moving image project that will eventually thrust my practice forward into new realms. Working with the recorded footage on Dak’Art 2006 and HLM Costume, the aim will be to produce a work that explores my personal journey as a woman of a Black British mixed heritage in search of a sense of belonging, seeking to verify my cultural identity as a West African woman. As well exploring notions of cultural identity I hope to throw up fresh alternative ways to present a visual dialogue around the subject matter of my practice through personal engagement with the new location of urban Dakar.
As a British born I have felt distanced from an early age from positive references to my African heritage and seem destine to repeatedly return to those childhood anxieties around racial position and loss. This moving image project will cover a lot but through a greater understanding of the genre
I hope to achieve a work that weaves together, both cultural and physical, cinematic and architectural references through the rich imagery of urban Dakar, to bring together encounters between, local and global cultures, where the ghosts of history linger amid the realities of the day. My vision is for a passionate visual presentation that enlightens, enriches and puzzles in the way that a puzzle will still be a puzzle once completed.
