Trophies of Empire

A black father and son discuss the ways in which popular myths have shaped their everyday experiences. Go West Young Man, created on an Amiga home computer, parallels their dialogue with a montage of historical moments that have influenced Western perceptions of black masculinity.

This commission brings together two artworks made almost 100 years apart. Both works were produced for the same room in Tate Britain. One is a mural, painted directly on to the walls of the gallery in the 1920s. The other a film installation, commissioned in response to the mural. Together these artworks invite questions about how we engage with artworks from the past.

When Obama dropped the microphone, he knew what he was doing: this gesture remains a powerful way of underlining some final words. Derived from the 1980s rap scene, it signals the point when words reach their ultimate impact and full attention needs to be paid to what was just said. A single-screen video work featuring poet Panya Banjoko.

This short video explores, through a collage of images, text and voice over, some of the issues raised when Black athletes are called upon to 'represent' what have been historically seen as 'White' nations, within the international sporting arena. Produced initially for Manchester Olympic Video Festival, the piece juxtaposes nationalistic heraldry and the heroic imagery found in public monumental sculpture, with the bodies of two young Black athletes. Through referencing historical legacies of the disenfranchisement and exclusion faced by Black people, the piece goes on to examine how the transition of the Black athlete from the periphery to the centre of the nations psyche, carries with it a network of contradictions and limitations.

"A piece made in response to issues arising in the run up to the instigation of a single European market and it’s implications in respect of the movement of non white peoples around the continent., as well as through the outer boundaries of so called ‘Fortress Europe’." - LUX. Originally a mixed media installation, with four video monitors and slide projection.