Onion Spawn Studies 

The onion spawn studies are expressions of my interest in the onions as a metaphor for black, Bermudian, Caribbean, post colonial and afro-futurist identity. 

 

Infused with archival, fashion, and my own Alibii Imagery, I am building the layers of the 'onion' whilst peeIing back layers of meaning. 

 

I use the layers on the eyes as a lens through which postcolonial diasporic futures might be envisaged and imagined.  Through these works, I am investigating the onion. Using the onion as a metaphor for identity. In Bermuda, Bermudian people are affectionately referred to as “onions”which dates back to the island’s production of the onion during slavery in Bermuda. Black women were “minders” of the onion seed, the main care takers of this cash crop that made Bermuda wealthy. I am using the layers of the onion in parallel with the layers of my collage Alibii figures. Using past images, I collect photographs, sourced from the internet and print media.

 

I give each image a new life and meaning by cutting, sculpting, manipulating  and re-assembling the images using computer software. This is a way for me to investigate home, and safe spaces. The work comes out of digital space, using the figure explore outer and inner spaces black female bodies inhabit and move through. In this work,  I’m exploring layers of history and the complexities of Caribbean heritage and identity through writing, abstract painting, fashion and collage. 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, it is also about what pieces of our collective past would survive in such a future.