Art can be used to advocate for change and express societal issues. I create artwork that contributes to the social causes that impact my community, whether that be through subject matter, composition, or the story behind the painting.

This painting was commissioned by Making A Village, a non-profit organisation based in America, as a part of the “Reclaim The Child” project. The project was inspired by a controversial colonial painting displayed in the Yale Center for British Art, which featured a young enslaved child in the background looking on at his slave master. However, in my rendition i have replaced the slave master and others with a young man, dawning attire worn in west Africa. The enslaved child is looking up at the young man instead of his master to highlight the change in the power dynamics. I have chosen to paint two versions of the enslaved child, once in his original form and also as a free man to provide the viewer with alternate future where child was never a slave and had direct roots to his heritage hence the title “An Alternative Future”.

You can read more about slavery in historical art here.