Research

The work that I am currently researching and making, is concerned with is investigation of the onion, Using the onion layers as a metaphor for the layers of identity. In Bermuda, the place of my birth, Bermudian people are affectionately referred to as “onions” in which dates back to the island’s production of the onion during slavery in Bermuda. Black women in particular were “minders” of the onion seed. I have started this process by dissecting the origins of this site and the historic precedences it is involved with. 

Utilizing Nellie Musson’s “Mind the onion seed”, a book of outlining Black origins in Bermuda. Through my practice, I am mapping and linking the lineages of the familial heritage, archives, and up-cycling  material, to investigate the ways in which we recycle narratives. It is an investigation through the black female lens of the world. Here,  I seek to reclaim and tell new narratives about the black woman. I reimagine through the usage of my “Alibii” female figure (layered eyes) . I am aligning the many versions of her with the layering and delaying of the onion. In my practice i’m also investigating layers of history and the complexities of Caribbean heritage and identity through writing, abstract painting, fashion and collage. Collage becomes expansive and key to the execution of my works.

My life has been characterized by a series of movements. Living in multiple places, allowed me the insight to explore multiplicity and being in my work. The work is ultimately about migration, a gradual process of being and becoming the future. This work does not just position which futures are imaginable, its also about what pieces of our collective past would survive in such a future. Ultimately, I am unpacking the layers and meaning of femininity, blackness, nationality and migration.  Black women negotiate between the self and the world. Between real and imagined. Between being and projecting. Between authenticity and performativity. Through acts of self inquiry I am exploring the depth and breadth of what it means to be human.