Portfolio Selected Works
Soundscapes of Resistance
ADS2 Black Horizons: Worlding within the ruins of racial capitalism
Tutors: Dele Adeyemo, Ibiye Camp, Damaso Randulfe
“Soundscapes of resistance” proposes to work at the intersection between underground rave culture and post-industrial landscapes, focusing on the typology of the Amazon Fulfillment Centre. Amazon acts as an efficient model in the planning, controlling and policing of their warehouses, which effectively prevents workers from unionizing. Subverting the balance of distribution of power in these spaces would allow the workers to be in a position to negotiate for the bettering of the working conditions.
The warehouse typology is also historically linked to another kind of event: underground raves, that have their origin in 1980s Detroit. Initially, these events were a means to revert power relations by engaging people in complex operations of temporarily altering unlicensed spaces without authorities finding out. Building on the genealogical relationship between underground rave culture, post-industrial landscapes and global economies, the proposal utilises learnings from rave culture and applies them in the Amazon warehouse to disrupt the order of the space.
Amazon workers during a shift - existing actors in the Amazon Fulfillment Centre.
OTHERED: A Palimpsest of Stories
ADS8 Data Matter(s): The Gaming Edition
Tutors: Kamil Hilmi Dalkir, Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli
“Othered” utilises the worldbuilding potential of gaming environments to investigate questions of identity and displacement of a Roma family in Romania. The proposal is a film taking the form of a digital palimpsest of narratives where objects act as entry point into their life stories. As a Romanian, I grew up in a country which has systematically denied the rights of the Roma, leading to an inability for them to write their own histories. Aware of my limited view as an outsider, I have developed a body of work by co-opting different voices, accounts and testimonies through an archive of oral histories with the aim to shift the perspective in which the Roma are perceived. Through this project, I claim that this type of storytelling can help alleviate their struggles by bringing to visibility their experiences.
The narrative structure uses a mixed-media approach: photogrammetry scans of the site (discussing the temporality of their environment), 3D animations of the family’s household (to give agency to seemingly inanimate objects of everyday use) and found video footage aimed at their physical portrayal and representation.
For full film, please click here.
Film stills illustrating personal artefacts and different mediums utilised to tell the story.
Unlearning Oblivion: Deconstructing colonial narratives
MS1 Object as Protagonist
Tutors: Kamil Hilmi Dalkir, David Burns
“Unlearning oblivion” investigates the relationship between colonization and museum artefacts, using the Benin bronzes at the British Museum as protagonists. The bronzes were the very plaques used to decorate the walls at the Royal Palace of Benin, providing an important historical record of the Kingdom of Benin. Bronze casting is a very rich artistic practice in Benin - and it has been appreciated for centuries. Having started as a royal art form, only the Oba, the traditional ruler and the custodian of the culture of the Edo people, could commission work from the bronze casters. The purpose was to affirm their power, grandeur and the continuity of the ruling dynasty. The close attention to detail in the making of the bronzes is typical of a Benin artist and nowhere is this more apparent than in the plaques themselves. They continue to amaze scholars and historians because they seem to comprise a complete inventory of the art and culture of Benin. Ultimately, the bronzes led to a greater appreciation of African art and culture within Europe.
Consequently, “Unlearning Oblivion” attempts to intertwine two different narratives by looking at the plaques through a moving image piece – on the one hand, depicting the status-quo of the bronzes themselves as a critical part of the monoculture of the British Museum archive and - on the other - suggesting the identity of the plaques as a symbol laden with stories about the people of Benin, how they lived their lives and engaged with their cultural practices. The moving image is accompanied by the reading of a poem by Derek Walcott, “A far cry from Africa”, which talks about the poet’s duality as being British of African descent.
For full film, please click here.
Film stills. Through the techniques of severe crop and freeze frame, the two narratives (past and present) with their corresponding colours sepia and black&white, the Benin bronzes appear personified; a dichotomy emerges between the Nigerian craft of bronze casting and the statues that nowadays form part of he British Museum archive.
Photograph taken at the Live Show at the opening night in November by Tian Yang.
