Museum of Colour: Projects

The Museum of Colour stands as a pioneering digital platform celebrating the achievements and narratives of people of colour across film, television, and the arts. As a long term collaborator, I've contributed to three significant exhibitions that explore and illuminate British cultural history through contemporary artistic responses.

Through these works, I have joined the Museum's mission to uncover hidden narratives and expand cultural representation. Each exhibition provides a fresh lens on British history, allowing overlooked stories to emerge through contemporary artistic interpretation.

“These Things Matter: Empire, Exploitation and Everyday Racism” Exhibition (2022)

Created as part of the groundreaking collaboration between the Bodleian Libraries, Museum of Colour, and Fusion Arts - this piece responds to the historical Clarks Map from the Bodleian's colonial collections. The animation challenges and reverses the colonial gaze, examining the mindset behind the creation of such maps rather than their subjects.

In this work, I explore the question: "Who defines the savage but has permission to act savagely?" The piece turns the anthropological lens back onto colonial mapmaking itself, scrutinizing how cartography was used as a tool for cultural manipulation and control. By inverting the traditional colonial perspective, the animation reveals the paradox of those who claimed authority to categorize and dehumanize others while engaging in systemic violence themselves.

This digital response was exhibited both online through the Museum of Colour's digital platform and in-person at the Weston Library's Blackwell Hall (November 2022 - February 2023), contributing to a larger dialogue about empire, exploitation, and everyday racism.

Alongside the animated illustrations of my main exhibition piece, I created character illustrations for the Museum of Colour's interactive online quiz. These illustrations were designed to engage visitors with the museum's historical objects in an accessible and educational way. Through these characters, visitors could explore and learn about the exhibition's artifacts through an interactive digital experience, making complex historical themes more approachable and engaging for online audiences.

“My Words” Exhibition - Digital Poet Portrait Series (2021)

Commissioned by the Museum of Colour, I created five illustrated portraits for their celebration of 250 years of British poets of colour. The portraits include historical literary figures Robert Wedderburn, the radical 18th-century Jamaican-Scottish poet; Sarojini Naidu, 'The Nightingale of India'; and Rabindranath Tagore, the renowned Bengali poet and Nobel laureate.

Through experimental techniques combining textured printed layers, I developed unique portraits that capture each poet's essence. Originally launched at Manchester Metropolitan's Poetry Library, the exhibition now exists digitally, combining my layered illustrations with photography portraits and podcast conversations. This multimedia approach creates a rich digital archive that preserves both the visual presence and voices of these influential literary figures.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

“Respect Due” Exhibition (2020)

During the pandemic, I was one of 3 artists commissioned to be part of the “Respect Due” exhibition. This art collection paid tribute to creative elders in Britain who’ve had a significant impact on contemporary UK arts and culture. The six portraits I createdHorace Ove, Amrit Wilson, Aubrey Williams, Judith Jacobs, Ferdinand Dennis and DJ Ritu pay homage to their stories.

Through interviews with sitters and their families, I developed multilayered painted and digital portraits that showed a portal into the worlds of each sitter. Originally launched at Pitt’s River Museum, Oxford the exhibition now exists as a digital archive, combining my layered art pieces with podcast conversations.