FIND YOUR WAY BACK: Unmapping Blackness

‘FIND YOUR WAY BACK: Unmapping Blackness’ explores the multiplicity of Black and mixed identities through colour, material and sound. Centred on a modular ceramic work glazed in shades evoking the Pan-African flag, the piece forms a spatial landscape that disrupts and unmaps linear readings of Blackness, particularly those shaped by US frameworks. Each tile is a fragment of a larger whole, celebrating variation and interconnectedness.

The accompanying soundscape weaves ambient tones, lyrical fragments, and rhythmic patterns, symbolically incorporating the figure of Beyoncé. Both a product of American cultural hegemony and a resonant voice within the global Black diaspora, she embodies the ambivalent power of pop culture to challenge and reinforce dominant narratives. The clay tiles reference the legacy of Black Abstractionism, recognising materiality as a means of shaping the world. The installation invites movement, listening and contemplation — asking how identity and belonging are mapped, and how one might find their way back.