BRITISH AFRICAN-Caribbean, conceptual artist and activist Elsa James is set to show off her first major solo exhibition in Essex.
The Focal Point Gallery, based in Southend-on-Sea on the Thames Estuary, will be the venue for James’ ‘Othered in a region that has been historically Othered’.
Part of her ongoing enquiry into what it means to be black in Essex, the exhibition includes a major three-part film installation and original sound works, alongside text and new series of prints.
These are centred around James’ lived experience, combined with the untold stories of past and current residents of the county and extensive historical research.
The historical oppression that James’ research reveals is emblematic of her own experience and provides the basis of an ambitious new film work that spans vast timelines, eventually propelling viewers to a radical future vision of Essex.
In three chapters, this new film moves from a reimaging of the persecution of women as witches or essentially ‘other’ in the mid-17th century by the infamous Witchfinder General, Matthew Hopkins, to a future alternative Essex where recovery has been achieved, via a Caribbean island ritual that acts as a transformative moment.
As a form of speculative fiction and with evocative use of sound and the moving image, the film installation signals a major departure in James’ practice.
Ahead of the exhibition Focal Point Gallery Director, Katharine Stout said: “We are delighted that Focal Point Gallery, south Essex’s only dedicated contemporary art gallery, will host the premier of Elsa James’ first major solo exhibition, in recognition of the prescient and powerful work of this important artist.”
James’s recent works investigate recovery, recollection, and the archives, to examine ideas surrounding regionality of race and black subjectivity.
Earlier films Forgotten Black Essex (2018) and Black Girl Essex (2019) forged new understandings of blackness viewed through a contemporary Essex lens by exploring little known histories and current accounts of residents in England’s most misunderstood county.
Catch James’ ‘Othered in a region that has been historically Othered’. from June 26 to September 18, 2022
Comments Form