Each line is an acknowledgement

This post is part of an on-going series of reflections for a commission from The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. You can read all the posts here. You can view the final images here.

In these new works I reflect on my experiences of racism at various sites of my childhood. Painful physical attacks, racist bullying at school and the experiences of my parents as an interracial couple.

Abstracted and distorted self portraits are layered with hand drawn maps of sites of trauma, deeply embedded into my psyche. I have avoided thinking about these incidents for such a long time, but through drawing and photographs I’ve been able to reclaim these places that are an indelible part of my identity.

Each line is an acknowledgement of a place that once held such hurt, but is now reclaimed in colour. Each site and its memories have simply delivered me to where I am meant to be today.