Slade School of Fine Art – University College London graduate show. 

Central to my presentation is an installation of painted calabashes (gourds) brought back from recent trips to Accra, Ghana. The calabash is a dried, hardened fruit widely used across Africa and other tropical regions as a natural container, musical instrument or utensil.

The twelve gourds represent a community: mother and child, elder and everyone in between. Together, they form a collective presence, with each head positioned in a different direction, inviting viewers to move around and navigate the installation from multiple perspectives.

None of the people depicted in this body of work are real individuals. Rather, they are composite archetypes drawn from memory, found imagery and archival family photographs. Whilst the calabashes represent heads, the stratified railway sleeper plinths on which they are perched function as bodies. The sleepers are also a reference to my foundation as a graffiti writer, embedding elements of my artistic origins within the work.

The space has been intentionally curated. I am interested in how viewers move through the constellation of sleepers and calabashes, negotiating personal space in much the same way we do when travelling through public spaces in urban environments.

Small, more intimate works sit alongside a mural scale piece spray painted onto white kente cloth that was dyed with black tea in Accra. Kente is a highly revered handwoven textile traditionally made from strips of cotton. The cloth’s beige tone is particularly unusual, as beige is not a colour typically produced by kente weavers and was specially commissioned for this project.

This installation is an exploration of the many facets of my personal history. Seemingly disparate elements are brought together through a restrained colour palette and a beige painted floor that anchors the space.

Over the last two years, my studio practice has expanded beyond the conventional flat canvas, embracing experimentation across a range of materials, scales and substrates, including bronze casting and wood carving. Despite this diversity, the work seeks to maintain a sense of calm. Presented within the context of the graduate show, the installation offers a space for quiet reflection, contemplation and light.