Statement
What is rest and who can do so according to British art history? Black people are seldomly shown looking at the audience in scenes containing white individuals, they remain nameless in positions of servitude[1]. Experiencing the disorientating environment of Lubaina Himid’s Naming the Money (2004)[2], where she dons black slaves in colourful clothing and classical music, stirred guilt within me. Informed by Himid, I depict warm naturalistic scenes of communal care in my semi-realistic oil and acrylic-based narrative figure paintings. Painting allows me to control texture, composition, and vibrancy. I sculpt asymmetrical rounded bodies with heavy shadows and soft highlights, capitalising on my imagination to capture several moments at once. The figures are aware of surveillance and stare back too.
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A large shift took place in my practice after attending the Black British Art Theory lecture[3] in the autumn term, where I moved from aesthetic-focused pieces like In Motion (2023) to my later works that pay greater attention to composition (partially informed by Nicole Eisenman)[4], reflections, gaze, and culture. The talk explored local black British history, which motivated me to rediscover my Angolan heritage. I began reading Poems from Angola by Michael Wolfers[5] searching for knowledge. Modern Angolan poetry was a form of resistance against Portuguese colonisation. Poets were silenced but the student-led literary movement Vamos Descobrir Angola (Let’s Discover Angola)[6] still prevailed despite interference[7]. Poetry has become a source of inspiration for my paintings as they serve as first-person records from young Angolans who endured this time. Articulating these autobiographical moments was enough to be deemed as a rebellion and shift the tides of a country. Specific locations and cultural customs mentioned in these writings granted me greater access to the shadow of Angola. Agostinho Neto[8] was a prominent poet with writings such as Kinaxixi and To adorn her hair.
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In Kinaxixi, Neto expresses his desire to be seated on a bench in the market square, to see black people and hear their native language of Kimbundu, and perhaps, someone may sit down next to him. To some Angolans destain[9], the iconic Kinaxixi square is now a 25-story high real estate complex[10]. In I liked to be seated on a bench in Kinaxixi… Someone might come and sit down…at my side (2023), I pay homage to the old Kinaxixi market in illustrative style with a colour scheme anchored by the Angolan flag. I fulfil Neto’s desire for company on the bench and navigate the question “What if it were me to sit by him? What may we conversate about?”. Bold “VAMOS DESCOBRIR ANGOLA” text wraps around the edges of the canvas. I hoped to encourage the audience’s curiosity so they could discover the true Angola.
The poem To adorn her hair is Neto’s love letter to his wife as well as Angola, he expressed his resilient desire to decorate her hair with roses regardless of any obstacles set by colonial forces. My painting To Adorn Her Hair (2024) is a love letter to the communal nature of protective hairstyles like box braids. One adorns another’s afro with a porcelain rose which popular Angolan flower due to its long-lasting vibrancy after being cut[11], mirroring the resilience of Angolans. They lounge comfortably under a samakaka[12] blanket, a design derived from the mumuila tribe[13] in Angola. The girls are connected through gaze; the scene extends in the mirror, but the line is broken as one subject incidentally stares back at the viewer.
Following my research of Angola and narrative figure painters like Lynette Yiadom-Boakye[14], Noah Davis[15] and Kerry James Marshall[16] has led me to develop my new body of work titled in another life (2024) which will comprise three paintings on canvas (two 150 cm x 150cm and one 120cm x 180cm). In this series, I continue to celebrate blackness depicting communal care and compassion through the act of giving them names and poses full of personality. I further exaggerate the compositional exchange between figures through reflections, as informed by Marshall, employing mirrors as tools that grant the figures agency. They can consciously react to their surveillance from the audience. The rebellion in this instance is not the art itself, but the figures who exercise oppositional gaze[17] within it.
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[1] Joseph,Peterson. “The outrageous neglect of African figures in art history.” Art UK. October 31, 2019. https://artuk.org/discover/stories/the-outrageous-neglect-of-african-figures-in-art-history
[2] Himid, Lubaina. “Naming the Money.” Accessed April 25, 2024. https://lubainahimid.com/portfolio/naming-the-money/
[3] Reading School of Art. “Black British Art Theory: A lecture to honour Black History Month.” October 18, 2023. https://artreading.org/2023/10/18/black-british-art-theory-a-lecture-to-honour-black-history-month/
[4] Wikipedia. “Nicole Eisenman.” Accessed April 9, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicole_Eisenman
[5] Wolfers, Michael. Poems from Angola. London: Heinemann. 1979
[6] Porto Editora.” Vamos Descobrir Angola!” Accessed April 1, 2024. https://www.infopedia.pt/artigos/$vamos-descobrir-angola!
[7] Bamgbose, Gabriel S. "Modern African Verse and the Politics of Authentication." CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 16.1 (2014): 8. https://doi.org/10.7771/1481-4374.2283
[8] Poetry Foundation. “Agostinho Neto”. Accessed April 19, 2024. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/agostinho-neto
[9] Onofre, Clara. “Angola: Going, going, gone!” Global Voices. https://globalvoices.org/2008/08/29/angola-going-going-gone/
[10] Sacyr. Kinaxixi MXD. Complex. Accessed March 25,2024. https://www.sacyrinfraestructuras.com/en/kinaxixi-mxd-complex
[11] World Sensorium/Conservancy. “Angola – World Sensorium / Conservancy”. Accessed April 2, 2024. https://worldsensorium.com/angola/
[12] Taste of Southern Africa. “CULTURAL WEAR AND FABRICS FROM SOUTHERN AFRICA”. April 24, 2020. https://www.tasteofsouthernafrica.com/blog/2020/4/24/cultural-wear-and-fabrics-from-southern-africa#:~:text=Samakaka%20from%20Angola,-Bold%20and%20colourful&text=The%20black%20represents%20the%20African,are%20rooted%20in%20traditional%20symbols
[13] EMBASSY OF THE REPUBLIC OF ANGOLA IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. “Celebrating the 48th Anniversary of the Independence of Angola.” Accessed April 20, 2024. https://angola.org/grupos-etnicos/
[14] Tate. “An Introduction to Lynette Yiadom-Boakye.” Accessed April 21, 2024. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/lynette-yiadom-boakye-16784/introduction-lynette-yiadom-boakye
[15] Wikipedia. “Noah Davis (painter).” Accessed April 24, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah_Davis_(painter)
[16] Wikipedia.” Kerry James Marshall.” Accessed April 27, 2024.
[17] Wikipedia. “Oppositional gaze.” Accessed March 29, 2024.