Family Blackground
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Photography Installation, 16 x cibachrome colour photographs, dimensions 30 x 20cm
2003

To be asked the question what is your name and where do you come from are subtle ways of asking the question what is our connection to each other, are we related? It is in this inquiry to investigate this connection that this work has its origin.

Members of my family were photographed framed by the front door of their home holding a blackboard with the family surname of the mother on top and the fathers family surname underneath. The blackboard as a signifier and surface to write and erase upon, leaves behind the mark and trace of previous names. The work is presented as a visual map of three generations of a family tree.

In beginning to trace and map the diaspora of my own family name, an image emerges as to how family systems functions to frame and locate identity and origin.



VIEW FAMILY TREE