You and We, 2014

You and we is a project that includes video projections, photographic works, photomontages, objects and sound. It is designed as a spatially organized installation and deals with questions of cultural identity, hybridity and memory.

Private, autobiographical material is alienated on the basis of memories: three protagonists - the artist herself and her two parents - are presented in a fictionalized manner. Stories of her Ghanaian mother, such as her arrival in Europe in an extravagant pink dress, or her first job as a pineapple promoter in Germany in the 70s (where fresh pineapples were not yet known) serve as a template for photomontages. The artist stages herself as an african warrior queen and her father’s self-portraits raise gender issues.

In this way, photographs and photomontages are combined on three channels and supplemented by video recordings from german zoos and studio recordings of southern fruits. The floor of the exhibition space is kept in an exotic yellow, individual items of clothing and private objects of the protagonists complement the semi-transparent projection fabrics that have been installed with simple plastic cords and pegs.

The installation deals with aspects of the exotic, the everyday, hybrid identities, but also self-images and prejudices. The spatial organization of the projections and sounds, which are reproduced in an unsynchronized loop, provokes an additional montage when walking through.

Credits

Ama Peters

Transgena