What Would Essex Look Like? 2022
Duration: 9:36 minutes
This is the audio work for the final chapter, An Afro Future Narrative for Essex — a speculative extension of the three-part film Othered in a region that has been historically Othered, 2022, which reimagines Essex as a site of transformation and reconfigured social relations. An insistent techno rhythm runs through its structure, referencing Essex’s 1990s rave culture. The composition centres Black, queer, and marginalised voices in Essex as part of a collective address shaped through rhythm, repetition, and rupture. Rather than forming a linear narrative, the work unfolds as an expanded listening space that echoes the film’s proposition: that Essex can be understood as a site where inherited hierarchies are destabilised, and new social possibilities emerge.
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: Designed by Trevor Mathison with Elsa James; Voice-over: Nathan Chaplin; Film stills: Andy Delaney
Elsa James © 2026. All Rights Reserved.