ARTIST STATEMENT

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Abigail graduated from Coventry University in 2017 with a BA Fine Art. Now she is undergoing her MA in Art Therapy at the University of Derby,. She saw a need for BAME Art Therapists and wanted to use the arts that she enjoys in a way that helps others. We Can #1' We Can #2' and 'We Can #3' are 3 portraits were made in her final year of her degree in 2017, exhibited in her degree show with a set of screenprints and woodcuts called 'Because of them' ,which were silhouettes of black females from history, and the portraits are my modern versions of these females.

 

The pieces came about from researching and realising that lot of black history before the transatlantic slave trade was set up has been wiped from the history books, and black history is presented as something that started with slavery. she started looking into the history that was prior to this and found that there is a very rich and powerful history that blacks can look back to. My exploration covered what the representation of black females has been in the past, and how that negative imagery can be subverted by looking at female figures prior to slavery such as Queen Tiye, Nefertiti and Queen Nzinga (who are represented in the 3 different portraits, based on images she had found of them.)