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. 27: Hair Texture, 2022 Silkscreen print on Plike Black 330gsm 68 x 68 cm (unframed) Edition 1 of 1 plus 1 Exhibition copy Signed, dated, and numbered on the back Documentation of racist microaggressions, shared anonymously by four Black men reflecting on their everyday experiences of growing up in, or currently living in, Essex, England. Part of The Black Interior works here Credits: Typographics: Proof; Screenprint: K2Screens; Photographed by Anna Lukula ENQUIRE HERE Elsa James © 2026. All Rights Reserved.

AVAILABLE EDITIONS We Stand With You, 2021 Silkscreen print on Plike Black 330gsm 42 x 59.4 cm (unframed) Edition 1 of 5 Artists' Proofs Signed, dated, and numbered on the back 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. Credits: Typographics: Proof; Screenprint: K2Screens; Photographed by Anna Lukula ENQUIRE HERE 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.

Explore Projects by Elsa James - Solo Artist showcasing diverse projects. Discover the creativity and passion in Projects by Elsa James today. WORKS - projects Eighty-Five Years, 2024 We Stand With You, 2021 The Black Essex Flag, 2019 Love in Social Practice, 2019 <<< Sound 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.

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.

Elsa James is a Black British multidisciplinary artist based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex. Her research-led practice explores Black liberation, speculative reimagining and critical hope. As a Windrush descendant, she engages diasporic histories of migration, displacement and belonging. Working across moving image, performance, text, neon, collage and sound, her work weaves archival fragments, embodied memory and contemporary Black life into layered contemporary art. E L S A J A M E S v i s u a l a r t i s t Elsa James © 2026. All Rights Reserved.

WORKS - MOVING IMAGES - Black Girl Essex, Here We Come, Look We Here, 2019 Black Girl Essex, Here We Come, Look We Here, 2019 HD digital video, sound 13:41 minutes ( 1:09-minute excerpt below) Edition of 3 and 1 AP Filmed at the Port of Tilbury, Essex. This film marked the culmination of a six-month residency at Firstsite. Its narration was shaped through focus groups with members of Essex’s Black community, foregrounding collective voice, testimony, and the diasporic experience of living outside of London. Set against the backdrop of Tilbury Docks—the landing site of the Empire Windrush in 1948—the work reflects on Black presence and belonging within Essex’s historical and cultural landscape. Commissioned by Firstsite. Funded through Arts Council National Lottery Project Grants. Credits: Conceived, written, and produced by Elsa James from focus groups she held with members of the Black communities in Essex. Directed, photographed and edited by Andy Delaney. Performance by Elsa James. Narrative edited by Elsa James. With Graham Tobias, Camera Assistant and Gaffer; Mak Gilchrist, Director's Assistant; Storm Thompson, Assistant to Elsa James; Louis Gaston, Sound Engineer; Adrian Seery, Colourist; Ed Hall, New Essex Flag for the film; Symone Williams, Carnival Costume Designer; and Ian Matthews, Music Consultant. All film stills: Andy Delaney. Screening history: 2023 - Tilbury Cruise Terminal, Essex, UK 2022 - Goldsmiths CCA, London, UK 2022 - Focal Point Gallery, Essex, UK 2022 - Firstsite, Colchester, UK 2021 - South London Gallery, London, UK 2019 - Firstsite, Colchester, UK <<< An Afro Future Narrative for Essex Forgotten Black Essex, Hester and Hester Woodley >>> Elsa James © 2026. All Rights Reserved.

WORKS - SELECTED SCREENPRINTS - The Black Interior, 2022 The Black Interior, 2022 Fifteen screenprints on paper 68 x 68 cm Edition of 1 and 1 Exhibition Copy, each These prints which form part of The Blackness Series take their title from The Black Interior (2004), a collection of essays by poet Elizabeth Alexander. The prints document fifteen accounts of racist microaggressions, shared anonymously by four Black men reflecting on their everyday experiences of growing up in, or currently living in, Essex, England. Explore the accompanying audio 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: Typographics: Proof; Screenprint: K2 Screen; Photographed by Anna Lukula Exhibition history: 2023 - Art Exchange, Colchester, UK 2022 - Focal Point Gallery, Southend, UK <<< The Rebels of Breadnut Island Pen The Blackness Prints >>> Elsa James © 2026. All Rights Reserved.

WORKS - SOUND - Jab Jab Essex, 2022 Jab Jab Essex. 2022 Audio 8:11 minutes This dense, rhythmic sound work, created to accompany A Jab Jab Awakening Towards a New Essex , engages the body as a site of resistance, inversion, and refusal. Built from layered sounds of the conch shell and drum, the composition draws on the ritual and carnivalesque traditions of Jab Jab, where performance becomes a strategy for confronting historical violence. Its hypnotic intensity evokes the alternative future Essex imagined in Chapter Three, where collective recovery is realised through a transformative Caribbean ritual. 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 with D rums performed by Ken Lawrence and Conch Shell by Niles Hailstones. Designed and shaped by Trevor Mathison; Film stills: Andy Delaney <<< Redemptive Blue What Would Essex Look Like? >>> Elsa James © 2026. All Rights Reserved.

WORKS - NEONS Declaration I: Because We Have Been Troubled..., 2025 Declaration II: And Still, We Rise, 2025 Requiem for Empire, 2022 <<< Collages SCREENPRINTS >>> 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. 4: Hey, We're Over Here! 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 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.