Motherland

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CANVAS at TivoliVredenburg

I answered an open call for video artworks to comprise the 2025 edition of CANVAS. Now in it's third year, CANVAS is a 150m2 video installation on the 6th floor of TivoliVredenburg, the music and cultural hub of Utrecht. I was one of 14 artists selected to respond to the theme 'What Family Really Means To You'. The result is an anthology of 14 unique stories told from various perspective and through a range of disciplines; from animation and illustration to film and photography.

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A call to the Motherland

For me, family is the roadmap of my racial and cultural identity. As a person of mixed race, this provides much-needed stability when trying to find where I belong between two cultures. My paternal grandparents emigrated from Jamaica to England in 1960 but died before I was old enough to know them. "Motherland" recalls childhood memories of my first and only visit to Jamaica and expresses both a yearning to know the place I come from and a longing for a black matriarchal figure in my family. The animation also touches on the discomfort of being the first to reach out across a silent disconnect. The line of communication in my family between the two countries has slowly gone cold over two generations. This is foregrounded by the presence of a real family heirloom: my grandparents' old red rotary telephone.

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‍Launch event

CANVAS debuted it new line of of video artworks for 2025 on 24th January with a launch party. The installation is free to visit throughout the year at Park 6 in TivoliVredenburg on Friday and Saturday evenings from 10:00 PM – 1:00 AM.

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Podcast

I talked in depth about the making of Motherland in a podcast for CANVAS Talks prior to the launch of the installation. The full transcript can be read here

© Photography by Ward Mevis