Working on from my writings around Black bodies with/in nature, the BALTIC commission which turned out to be The Country Journal of a Blackwoman(Northumberland), became the workings and musings, thoughts and ideas of a composite Blackwoman throughout the generations and years of my matrilineage.
A multidisciplinary series exploring my matrilineage within the Northumberland landscape in order to (re)claim our individual and collective identities, this hybrid exhibition explored creating an archive centring the Black presence within a Conjuring Feminism, intergenerational dialogue, connecting to past, present and possible futures as an act of healing.
This palimpsest (re) creates the life of a composite Blackwoman through her mixed media visual country journal inviting the audience into the intimate connection and appreciation of the wise, wild Blackwoman coming out from Mother Nature. This is an in depth study of the Black female body with/in nature to (re)animate a matrilineal tradition connected to the landscape as well as producing evidence of Creatrix having always been part of my ancestral bloodline.
Making visible the hidden, through creating mythologies and challenging the colonial archives, this piece will makes sure that our story is told/ present. “We can rely on our own archival body,” Marcia Michael.
Taking the concept of palimpsest to its creative conclusion, I argue that we as human beings are metaphorical palimpsest. Each experience leaves an impression on our mind, body and soul. Overtime memories are processed and changed and become narrated stories. While traumas are never processed and are stuck. Stored in our bodies and psyches.
