THE BLACK INTERIOR

Silkscreen prints on paper and accompanying audio sound work

The texts, existing on the cusp of visibility, document quotidian microaggressions experienced by black men in various settings; the audio collates snippets from popular British 1970s and 1980s sitcoms evidencing racist attitudes masquerading as humour. In this manner, the combination of text and audio indicate that the not-so-distant past stretches into, and continues to condition, our present. Outright racism transformed into microaggression does not entail societal improvement between then and now, but rather manifests how racism lingers consciously and unconsciously, overtly and in a more subterranean fashion, throughout society. Until the statements collected by James one day become historical sources, they function at present as testimonies to how structural racism renders the lives of black people horrendously precarious in manifold ways - Dr Matthew Bowman, University of Essex

The Black Interior silkscreen prints on paper and audio sound work take its name from the title of the book of essays of the same title by the poet Elizabeth Alexander (2004). Assembled in a darkened, meditative setting, the collection documents thirteen accounts of racist microaggression from four Black men who anonymously shared their everyday lived experiences of growing up in or currently living in Essex, England. The collection of prints forms part of The Blackness Series - an ongoing series of numbered text works from 2016, documenting personal lived experiences alongside broader critical social commentary. The black font on black is intentionally arduous to read, serving as a reminder about who is visible and who is invisible in our fractured society and becomes fully legible to read as light reflects on the work—whether that be on a digital screen display or the printed work itself. The audio edit contains abstracted and fragmented noise from the 1970s and 80s British television, which aired numerous prime-time programmes that were blatantly racist.

The prints and audio were exhibited in gallery two as part of the solo exhibition 'Othered in a region that has been historically Othered' at Focal Point Gallery between 25 June to 18 Sept 2022. The exhibition was also shortlisted for the Freelands Awards 2021.

Each print is a silkscreen on Plike black 330 gsm paper, 680 x 680 mm and is an edition of 1+1 AP.

A mini-print edition is also available from Focal Point Gallery - each print is 280 x 280 mm and is an edition of 3 + 1 AP.