Biography

Curator, Researcher and Writer

In 2009, she co-founded the independent curatorial project Mother Tongue with collaborator Jessica Carden. They have since produced exhibitions, film programmes, discursive events, and texts working with galleries, museums, archives, festivals and national organisations: including National Galleries of Scotland; Glasgow Museums; Stills: Scotland’s Centre for Photography; CCA Glasgow; Transmission Gallery; Malmö Konsthall; and Galerie de l’UQAM, Montreal. In 2019, Mother Tongue curated ‘Transparency: Alberta Whittle and Hardeep Pandhal’ at Edinburgh Printmakers – for 2021, they will present a solo presentation titled ‘7×7’ from artist susan pui san lok for Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art.

She has lectured at The Glasgow School of Art since 2016, received her PhD in Art History from Birkbeck, University of London, and in2019/20 held a Postdoctoral and Senior Scholar research fellowship from the Hauser & Wirth Institute NY.

Project Statement 

The ‘AfroScots’ project seeks to bring into a single narrative for the first time the history of Black artists living, working, studying and exhibiting in Scotland, from the 1860s to present day – albeit with some large gaps in this chronology. Stemming out of archival and collection research, this research responds directly to the whiteness of Scottish art history, considering issues of visibility, presence, marginalisation and inclusion. For this Fife Contemporary event, I will focus on a particular period within the timeline compiled – focusing on the 1960s and 1970s – and discuss ways in which this research is being translated into curatorial actions.

To find out more about Mother Tongue and explore their projects you can visit the website here.