Abstract Bronze V, 2025

The use of “African” textiles in the work of the artist expresses the historical trading relationship between Africa and Europe. The batik textiles are Indonesian in origins. Emerging in the mid-nineteenth century when Dutch companies such as Vlisco, recreated these textiles on a mass scale. When the Dutch failed to sell them back to the Indonesians, they expanded the market into Europe and Africa. In the 1960s post-independence these fabrics were embraced by West African nations and are now considered “African”. The artist uses the history of the textiles as a starting point to explore a range of material and immaterial concerns.