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MORTIFICATIONS AND HOWEVER, I CAN

Diptych screenprint on plywood

910 x 910 mm, each

 

Screenprint on plywood

300 x 300 mm

 

MortiFications and However, I Can (2024) forms work no. 41 and 42, a new iteration of works from The Blackness Series. They were created for Intention (the concept 'dog' encapsulates its 'dogness'), a group exhibition at Copperfield London devoted to celebrating and interrogating neurodiversity.

 

The diptych reveals a glimpse into the shame and trauma of living with dyslexia, combined with the marginalisation faced growing up as a Black woman in 1980s Britain. This deeply ingrained sense of shame presented a significant challenge in creating the smaller screenprint, but it aims to highlight two strengths that celebrate her neurodiversity. The text in these works has been composed without the usual aid of predictive text, voice-to-text, auto-correction, or Grammarly for professionals.

The Blackness Series is an ongoing series of numbered text works commencing in 2016. It documents historical and contemporary Black lived experiences alongside broader critical social commentary. The font is typically black typeface on a black background, making the works intentionally arduous to read. Through this technique, the work attempts to accentuate how Black communities are held in the tension between hypervisibility and invisibility in a fractured world.
 

Works from this series are also held in the Government Art Collection and the collection of Melanie Keen.

Email Copperfield for enquires

Elsa James: Copperfield gallery. Photo: Gillies Adamson Semple 

Copperfield gallery, instalation view, left Rebeca Romero, far left Kristian Kragelund. Photo: Gillies Adamson Semple 

Elsa James: Copperfield gallery. Photo: Gillies Adamson Semple 

Copperfield gallery, instalation view, far left Alberta Whittle. Photo: Gillies Adamson Semple 

Elsa James: Copperfield gallery
Elsa James: Copperfield gallery
Elsa James: Copperfield gallery. Photo: Gillies Adamson Semple 

 Above, However, I Can. Photo: Gillies Adamson Semple 

Above, MortifFications. Photo: Copperfield

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