LIQUID CARBON
is a digitised collage of drawings of water and paintings printed on mirrored aluminium. It explores the resilience and resourcefulness of the African diaspora in response to the colonising project of the British empire. The composite artwork builds upon motifs of blood, culture and memory to evoke a chaotic scene of resistance in the Atlantic Ocean’s middle passage and contemplates how the ripples of history return to meet us in the future.
THE WORK COMMISSIONED BY THE NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM WAS DEVELOPED THROUGH CONVERSATIONS WITH THE CARIBBEAN SOCIAL FORUM, BLC (BLACK LONDON CREATIVES) TO VISUALLY ILLUMINATE A FRAME IN TIME RELATING TO CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN DIASPORA COMMUNITIES, WHOSE ARCHIVED HERITAGE HAS BEEN OBSCURED AND FRACTURED BY LEGACIES OF EUROPEAN COLONIALISM. THE FRACTAL ARTWORK, LIKE HISTORY, IS RIDDLED WITH FISSURES AND GAPS.
SEE ARTWORK GALLERY BELOW, PHOTOGRAPHY BY JONNY GIARDIANI.
