Reclamation of the Exposition

Self-portrait project which explores the commodification, fetishization and sexualisation of the black female body, specifically through the human displays in colonial expositions in the 18th and 19th centuries. The work is influenced by ethnographic photographs which were circulated as pornography. Using self-portraiture and digital collage whilst drawing from Prince Roland Napoleon Bonaparte’s photographic collection ‘Boschimans et Hottentot’, the works combine the contemporary with historic ways of being seen. Referencing her Nigerian heritage, Adekunle explores the relationship between the past and present ways the black female body is treated.