Guardian Angel

Commissioned by The ICA’s annual programme Image Behaviour 2022, Guardian Angel is a multi-channel film installation. Using personal experience within my practice, I work with family members, friends and my community to explore questions about the histories and cultures that have shaped me. Told through the personal lens of the my relationship with my late grandmother, Guardian Angel explores how Nigerian and western belief systems form relationships to religion and spirituality of post-colonial societies. Borrowing from the form of an altarpiece in Christian churches, which traditionally depicts saints, biblical figures and events, the three-channel video features footage of my grandmother interwoven with material recorded in Lagos, Dakar and London, as well as found videos and personal archival imagery. The film is visually and sonically composed like a collage – dream-like footage from the studio cuts to landscapes, written text, depictions of angelic statues, and excerpts from music videos, TV interviews with African philosophers and colonial missionaries. The sonic layer features edited voicemails, music and spoken word fluidly mixed together. Presented in a setting evoking the divine through the use of draped fabrics, the film tells a nuanced and complex story about belief, love and loss. I am so proud to say that my film has since travelled to 3 continents and has been screened in Gaborone, Botswana, London, UK, Chicago, USA and Lagos, Nigeria.