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WORKS - PROJECTS - Love in Social Practice, 2019 Love in Social Practice, 2019 Digital video, sound 8:44 minutes (2:46-minute excerpt below) Filmed at the Saturday Socials Community Project, Cubitt, London This film attempts to capture the essence and spirit of Charlene Sandy, who at the time was the Creative and Outreach Coordinator at Cubitt. Her work played a pivotal role in the organisation’s commitment to supporting projects within vulnerable communities, foregrounding care, connection, and sustained engagement as central to its practice. Commissioned by Cubitt Screening history: 2019 - Cubitt, London, UK 2019 - All Change Arts, London, UK <<< The Black Essex Flag Elsa James © 2026. All Rights Reserved.

WORKS - MOVING IMAGES - Forgotten Black Essex: Princess Dinubolu, 2018 Forgotten Black Essex: Princess Dinubolu, 2018 (Film two) HD digital video, sound 6:19 minutes (1.14-minute excerpt below) Edition of 3 and 1 AP Filmed in Southend-on-Sea, Essex Film two focuses on Princess Dinubolu, a woman who travelled from Senegal to Southend-on-Sea, Essex in 1908 and is recorded in the archive as a beauty pageant participant. Her presence appears through scattered references that reflect both visibility and constraint—offering a glimpse into her story while leaving much unknown. Credits: Forgotten Black Essex was conceived, written and produced by Elsa James as a pilot project funded through a research and development grant from Arts Council England with an additional small grant from Southend-on-Sea Borough Council. Partnership support from Metal, Take the Space and Autograph ABP, and collaborative support from S I Martin, researcher; Andy Delaney, moving image director; Amaal Said, still images; and Gareth Jones, sound recordist. Screening history: 2022 - Focal Point Gallery, UK 2019 - Firstsite, Colchester, UK 2018 - Autograph ABP, UK 2018 - Metal, Southend, UK <<< Forgotten Black Essex: Hester and Hester Woodley Goat Curry and Rap >>> Elsa James © 2026. All Rights Reserved.

WORKS - PROJECTS - The Black Essex Flag, 2019 The Black Essex Flag, 2019 Appliqué flag Black cotton satin, rayon, metallic lurex and Italian patent leather 121 x 182 cm Collection of Beecroft Art Gallery "Traditionally, the county flag of Essex is three silver cutlasses on a red background: a familiar emblem from local government, and the badge of the county cricket club. Elsa’s turning of the flag to black, with the swords glittering through the surface, is an overwriting of familiar norms with an unapologetic and proud subversion. This is a remarkable decolonial turn in the work, a symbol of appropriating a familiar historic Essex symbol and suggesting a new awareness of multiple narratives and layers of contestation and difference" — Dr Jon Blackwood Credit: Photographed by Tessa Hallmann for Southend Museums Exhibition history: 2024 - Beecroft Art Gallery, Southend, UK 2022 - Focal Point Gallery, Southend, UK 2020 - Beecroft Art Gallery, Southend, UK 2019 - Firstsite, Colchester, UK <<< We Stand With You Love in Social Practice >>> Elsa James © 2026. All Rights Reserved.

Limited edition screenprints available for purchase, documenting anonymised racist microaggressions shared by four Black men reflecting on everyday experiences of growing up in or living in Essex, England. The works record lived encounters of racial bias and subtle violence, translating spoken testimony into visual form as a way of archiving, exposing, and critically reflecting on contemporary Black British life and its social realities. AVAILABLE EDITIONS Work No. 7: Policy Note to Essex, 2021 Silkscreen print on Plike black 330gsm 68 x 68 cm (unframed) Edition 3 of 3 plus 1 AP Signed, dated, and numbered on the back £900 + shipping Part of The Blackness Prints Credits: Typographics: Fraser Muggeridge; Screenprint: The Printing Press; Photographed by Anna Lukula ENQUIRE HERE Elsa James © 2026. All Rights Reserved.

Filmed at London Museum Docklands, this work by Elsa James re-examines narratives of slavery, heritage and identity through a contemporary artistic lens. WORKS - MOVING IMAGES - Living in the Wake of the Lust for Sugar, 2023 Living in the Wake of the Lust for Sugar, 2023 4K digital video, stereo sound 7:53 minutes (2:27-minute excerpt below) Filmed in the London Sugar and Slavery Gallery, London Museum Docklands, London "The aim was to re-examine the existing narrative of the gallery, which was created in 2007, by expanding its interpretation with an artistic perspective connected to the audience that the gallery represents. For an institution like ours, the accuracy of her [James] vision, the finesse of her thinking, are precious tools to offer a new narrative on heritage and identity ." — Jean-François Manicom, Senior Curator (Docklands History and Legacies) Commissioned by the London Museum Docklands Credits: Written, performed and narrated by Elsa James; Co-directed by Andy Delaney and Elsa James; Co-edited by Andy Delaney and Elsa James; Sound designed by Greg Birkumshaw; Lighting by Struan Wallace; Narration recorded by Graham Tobias; Camera assistant: Graham Tobias; Set assistant: Storm Thompson; Makeup: Storm Thompson and Costume: Elsa James. All film stills: Andy Delaney. Screening history: 2024 - Art Museum, University of Toronto, CA 2023 - London Museum Docklands, London, UK Contemporary Echoes of the Subjugation of the Women of Essex >>> Elsa James © 2026. All Rights Reserved.

The Black Interior Audio Edit (2022) is a looping sonic work by Elsa James that layers archival TV, ambient sound, and rupture to explore racism and Black life. WORKS - SOUND - The Black Interior Audio Edit, 2022 The Black Interior Audio Edit, 2022 Audio 12:16 minutes, loop The Black Interior Audio Edit is a fragmented sonic work that accompanies the installation of The Black Interior , bringing together archival traces of British popular culture with the documented narratives of racism in Essex. Layering distorted excerpts from 1970s and 80s television with ambient noise and sounds, the audio exposes how racist logics persist—shifting form rather than disappearing. Operating between audibility and obscurity, the audio resists clarity, holding the listener within a space of tension where microaggressions and historical residue converge. It speaks to the ongoing condition of Black life as lived between hypervisibility and erasure. Listen on Soundcloud here Commissioned by Focal Point Gallery as part of the solo exhibition Othered in a region that has been historically Othered, 2022. Funded by Arts Council England, Focal Point Gallery and Southend-on-Sea City Council. Credits: Conceived by Elsa James; Designed and shaped by Trevor Mathison; Installation photos: Anna Lukula <<< Beyond the Hold in C # Minor Redemptive Blue >>> Elsa James © 2026. All Rights Reserved.

A silkscreen print created in response to George Floyd’s murder, calling for solidarity, racial justice, and collective action in the UK. WORK - PROJECTS - We Stand With You, 2021 We Stand With You, 2021 Screenprint on paper 42 x 59.4 cm Edition of 100 and 5 APs Devised in response to the public spectacle of George Floyd’s torture and murder by Derek Chauvin, this work emerged during a moment of global reckoning. The first iteration of the print was created during lockdown as a free A4 download, intended for display in the front windows of homes across the UK. It functioned as a visible pledge of solidarity with Black communities—an expression of support for their ongoing struggle against racism, structural discrimination, and enduring injustice. At its core, the work calls for the United Kingdom to stand united in confronting these urgent and persistent issues. Commissioned by Firstsite Credits: Typographics: Fraser Muggeridge; Screenprint: The Printing Press; Photographed by Anna Lukula <<< Eighty-Five Years The Black Essex Flag >>> Elsa James © 2026. All Rights Reserved.

A 27-minute durational performance at Tate Britain exploring freedom and flourishing through vocal endurance, audience participation, and urgent global issues. WORKS - DURATIONAL PERFORMANCES - Free to Flourish, 2023 Free to Flourish, 2023 Durational Performance 27:00 minutes Performed in Gallery G15, Tate Britain, London, which is dedicated to displaying British Art from 1760–1830 In response to the theme Flourish , this durational performance centres the repeated question: “How can we be free to flourish?” Voiced through shifting vocal registers and embodied gestures, the question is pushed to the point of physical and vocal exhaustion, marking the work’s conclusion. Throughout the performance, the audience was invited to call out urgent global concerns, written on paper and scattered across the gallery floor. They included: Ableism, Ageism, Antisemitism, Child Labour, Child Marriage, Climate Crisis, COVID-19, Fake News, Fatphobia, Gender Inequality, Hate Crime, Homophobia, Human Rights, Hunger, Islamophobia, Mental Health, Misogyny, Misogynoir, Poverty, Racism, Social Media Stress, The Metaverse, Trafficking, Transphobia, War, and Water Contamination. Commissioned by Black Blossoms for a Late at Tate event. Inspired by a keynote speech by Justine Simons OBE, Deputy Mayor for Culture and the Creative Industries Credits: With special thanks to Bolanle Tajudeen, Ese Onojeruo, Tram Nguyen, Husna Memon, Jasmine Pierre, and the Tate's Youth Advocates and Tate Collective Producers. All images: Eugenio Falcioni, Tate Gallery. <<< Gestures Towards telling A New Narrative Beyond the Hold >>> Elsa James © 2026. All Rights Reserved.

Forgotten Black Essex explores the life of Hester Woodley, an enslaved woman brought to Essex in 1741, through archival research and film by Elsa James. WORKS - MOVING IMAGES - Forgotten Black Essex: Hester and Hester Woodley, 2018 Forgotten Black Essex: Hester and Hester Woodley, 2018 (Film one) HD digital video, sound 6: 51 minutes (1:09-minute except below) Edition of 3 and 1 AP Filmed in Harlow, Essex The Forgotten Black Essex film duo marks a period of research conducted between 2018 and 2022 that examines Black lives within the historical context of Essex. Drawing on archival sources from national archives, they uncover stories previously neglected within prevailing accounts of British history. At the centre of this first film is Hester Woodley, an enslaved woman brought from a plantation on Saint Kitts to Harlow, Essex in 1741. Her life is partially documented in parish records and other archival sources, alongside that of her granddaughter, also named Hester. "My approach to working with these two accounts of archival documentation is not just to retell or reenact them. Rather, I am curious to ground them in the present by layering a contemporary lens that reinterprets how the two stories resonate with me as a Black woman living in Essex today." Elsa James Credits: Forgotten Black Essex was conceived, written and produced by Elsa James as a pilot project funded through a research and development grant from Arts Council England with an additional small grant from Southend-on-Sea Borough Council. Partnership support from Metal, Take the Space and Autograph ABP, and collaborative support from S I Martin, researcher; Andy Delaney, moving image director; Amaal Said, still images; Hester Woodley, the Granddaughter by Mandisa-Iman Thompson and Gareth Jones, sound recordist. Screening history: 2022 - Focal Point Gallery, UK 2019 - Firstsite, Colchester, UK 2018 - Autograph ABP, UK 2018 - Metal, Southend, UK <<< Black Girl Essex, Here We Come, Look We Here Forgotten Black Essex: Princess Dinubolu >>> Elsa James © 2026. All Rights Reserved.

The Blackness Series is an ongoing series of numbered text works by Elsa James, begun in 2016 and continuing today, documenting historical and contemporary Black lived experience alongside critical social commentary. Rendered in black type on a black background, the works are deliberately difficult to read, exploring tensions of hypervisibility and invisibility. The text becomes legible only as light shifts across its surface, on screen or in physical space. ​ WORKS - SELECTED SCREENPRINTS - The Blackness Prints, 2021 Work No. 4: Hey, We're Over Here! Work No. 7: Policy Note to Essex Work No. 5: Untitled The Blackness Prints, 2021 Three screenprints on paper 68 x 68 cm Edition of 3 and 1 AP, each This collection of works constitutes the first iteration of screenprints from The Blackness Series . Collections: Government Art Collection Collection of Melanie Keen Credits: Typographics: Fraser Muggeridge; Screenprint: The Printing Press; Photographed by Anna Lukula <<< The Black Interior The Mary Prince Narrative Part I >>> Elsa James © 2026. All Rights Reserved.

Explore the practice of Elsa James, a Black British multidisciplinary artist based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex. Her research-led work engages Black liberation, speculative reimagining, and critical hope to challenge the enduring structures and histories of the British Empire. Through moving image, performance, text, neon, collage, and sound, she weaves archival fragments, embodied memory, and contemporary Black life into layered, socially engaged contemporary art. WORKS MOVING IMAGES DURATIONAL PERFORMANCES PHOTO-BASED PERFORMANCE NEONS COLLAGES SCREENPRINTS DIGITAL ART SOUND PROJECTS Elsa James © 2026. All Rights Reserved.

Afro Dada collages exploring fragmented histories, Caribbean lineage, and Britain’s colonial amnesia, created live at Firstsite in 2025. WORKS - DURATIONAL PERFORMANCES - Gestures Towards Telling A New Narrative, 2024 SELECTED EXHIBITIONS- How to be in the future? 2025 How to be in the Future? 2025 7th Annual Salon for a Speculative Future Curated by Koushna Navabi and Monika Oechsler Chisenhale Art Place, London 3 - 12 October Osun-Osogbo, Windrush and Empire , 2025 Ten hand-cut collages Indian ink and Xerox photocopies on watercolour paper 29.7 cm x 29.7 cm, each Exhibition history: 2025 - Chisenhale Art Place Studio, London, UK 2025 - Firstsite, Colchester, UK Elsa James © 2026. All Rights Reserved.