The Black Flâneur Part I: Black Face White Space

Having spent a month in Venice in October 2017 where I was a Steward at the 57th Venice Biennale working in Giardini at the British Pavilion, I undertook a research project, whose aim was to critically examine the experience of being a Black tourist in Venice.

My approach, was to pay attention to all of the reactions, prejudices, comments and looks that I received whilst living in Venice, in order to understand what the discomfort of being a Black tourist really stemmed from.

This project resulted in two pieces of work, an audio diary entitled Letters To Sara and a performance lecture; The Black Flâneur.

Letters To Sara, is an audio diary of my experience with an accompanying hard copy booklet, the performance lecture takes this as a starting point to explore the feelings of being 'other' and the range of emotions from defiance to fear that I felt whilst taking part in the fellowship.

I performed Part I: Black Face White Space, during the collateral exhibition A Month at the Venice Art Pavilion at Raw Labs in London, (March 2018). I was chosen from a number of fellows to exhibit the audio piece Letters To Sara and present the accompanying performance lecture.

I have since performed this work at Barrel Organ's Live 8 Scratch Night at Camden People's Theatre, London in October 2018.