Close
Thesis
The Legacy of Belgian Colonialism in Contemporary Lens-Based Art on, of and from the Democratic Republic Congo.
My PhD explores how contemporary lens-based art produced by artists of Congolese origin has contributed to understandings of Belgian colonialism and its enduring effects in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is the first study to consider a group of contemporary visual artists of Congolese origin who were born in the 1970s and 80s and grew up in the aftermath of the colonial era: Sammy Baloji, Michèle Magema, Georges Senga and the artist-collective Kongo Astronauts. I situate their engagement with the colonial past in the wake of a new consciousness that emerged in Belgium in the late 1990s and early 2000s. By turning to a Congolese context, I expand the conception of these events beyond Europe and connect them to the globalisation of the art world, the explosion of biennial culture and the development of the category of 'contemporary African art'.
In my dissertation, I argue that the selected artworks trouble official accounts of Congolese history and provide alternative and often radical ways of understanding the past and the present in the Congo. I demonstrate the specific capacities of photography and video in reckoning with the legacies of colonialism. My analysis challenges the theatre of catastrophe and war through which the Congo is so often conceived. I detect in the works studied the signs, sounds and visual evidence of everyday experiences that exceed accounts of violence. The ludic, the mundane and the ruinous come to percolate in the world pieced together my dissertation; they are the interconnected elements of ongoing life in postcolonial Congo.
A manuscript based on my doctoral dissertation is being prepared for publication.
My PhD was funded by UCL (Departmental Research Studentship in History of Art). It was supervised by Tamar Garb and examined by Debora Silverman (UCLA) and Julian Stallabrass (the Courtauld).
Education
MA History of Art, University College London (Distinction, Dean's List)
BA History of Art (Asia, Africa and Europe), combined degree between School of Oriental and African Studies and University College London
Publications
‘From Camera to Canvas: The Case of Patrice Lumumba and Congolese Popular Painting’, Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art (forthcoming November 2020)
‘Futures and Fictions’ [Review of Chad Elias, Posthumous Images:
Contemporary Art and Memory Politics in Post-Civil War Lebanon; Sarah Suzuki (ed.), Bodys Isek Kingelez; and Barbara Steiner and Nicole Fritz (eds.), Congo Stars], Oxford Art Journal, Vol. 42, No. 3 (December 2019): 402–406
‘Mining Time in Sammy Baloji’s Mémoire’, African Arts, Vol. 52, No. 3 (Autumn 2019): 62–71
Review of 'Filip De Boeck and Sammy Baloji, Suturing the City: Living Together in Congo's Urban Worlds, Autograph ABP, London, 2016' (pdf), Object: Graduate Research and Reviews in the History of Art and Visual Culture, November 2017.
Conference Papers and Talks
‘The Space Age in Kinshasa’, French Studies Graduate Conference, University of Cambridge (25-26 April 2019)
‘Extractions: Kongo Astronauts’, Virtual Spaces: Metaphor and Materiality at the Institute of Advanced Studies, University College London (9 March 2019)
'Self as Lumumba: Georges Senga's Une vie après la mort', Decolonising the Self: Representations of the Self in Art Theory and Practice across Cultures at SOAS (22 November 2018)
‘Futures Heard: Kongo Astronauts’, Octagon Friday Forum: Noise at The Institute of Advanced Studies, University College London (29 June 2018)
‘The Myth of Patrice Lumumba: George Senga’s Une vie après la mort’, PhD Symposium in History of Art at University College London (26 June 2018)
'The Maintenance of Mobutu's Zaire: Michele Magema's Oyé Oyé', Film, Media and Global Culture Research Seminar at the Centre for Multidisciplinary and Intercultural Inquiry at University College London (22 March 2018)
'Transnational Extractions: Twists, Turns and Swings in Sammy Baloji's Mémoire (2006)' in the Association for Art History's 'New Voices 2017-18: Art and Movement' at University of Birmingham (11 January 2018)
'Mining Time in Sammy Baloji's Mémoire (2006)' in 'Shapes of Time: Recurrence in Material Culture' colloquium at University of East Anglia, Norwich (16 October 2017)
'Mining Lumbumbashi: On Time, Vision and Frames in Sammy Baloji's Mémoire (2006)', Postgraduate Research Seminar at University College London (12 June 2017)
'Between Temporality and Vitality in Sammy Baloji's Mémoire (2006)' in 'Le passé colonial belge au prisme des productions littéraires et artistiques contemporaines (2000-2015)' at Université libre de Bruxelles in Brussels, Belgium (29-31 March 2017)
Respondent for 'Photography, Representation and a Family Portrait' presented by Joy Gregory at Institute of Advanced Studies, UCL in London (17 January 2017)
Teaching
‘Contemporary Photography and Video from Africa’ Undergraduate Course, The Slade School of Fine Art (Spring and Summer 2020)
‘Themes in the Art and Archaeology of Africa’ Undergraduate Course, History of Art and Archaeology, School of Oriental and African Studies (Autumn 2019)
Lecture, ‘Contemporary Artists from the Congo and the Archive’ for MA students in ‘Modern and Contemporary Arts of Africa’ (18 October 2019)
‘Modern and Contemporary Art in London: Imaging Africa’ Undergraduate Course, History of Art, University College London (Spring 2020; Autumn 2018)
Coordinator for BA Dissertations and Independent Essays (2018/19, 2016/17)
Lecture, ‘Spectacle and Spectatorship in South African Photography’ for MA students in ‘Race/Place, Exotic/Erotic: Difference and Desire in Modernist and Contemporary Art’ (21 March 2018)
‘History of Art and its Objects’ Undergraduate Course, University College London (Autumn 2017)
Events
Co-organiser of ‘Virtual Spaces: Metaphor and Materiality’ symposium, 9 March 2019, University College London (supported by Octagon Grants and the Centre for the Study of Contemporary Art UCL)
Co-organiser of 'Dance and Vulnerability' symposium, 27 January 2018, University College London (supported by Centre for the Study of Contemporary Art UCL)
Research Activities
ReSkIN Assistant Coordinator
Deputy editor of Object journal
Member of the Centre for the Study of Contemporary Art, UCL