Jameisha Prescod

Irpinia follows the journey of young West Indian dreamer Dudley as he makes his way to England in the 1960s. At 24 years old, Dudley boarded a ship named Irpinia in search of a better life in England, the so-called motherland. Now 86, Dudley reflects on the exciting journey at sea and the harsh reality that lay ahead of him.

A moving image work that explores the space between sleeping and wakefulness during a chronic illness flare-up.

Jameisha Prescod’s exploration of the legacies of medical colonialism in Suriname and its attempts to classify and control black bodies centres the experiences of Afro-Surinamese and Maroon communities living in the Netherlands, including the voice of poet Carina Fernandes. Foregrounding personal responses to illness, spirituality, and medicine, Prescod reclaims health as a practice of memory and care where survival alone is understood as a radical inheritance.