Visual Art and Research
Research Work
Doctoral Research Project: Tropes of Polarity: Visual Representation and AfroDiasporic Identities.
Postdoctoral Research Project: A Tree is as Tree: Photography, Memory and Afrodiasporic Identities in the Context of Postmigration.
Links
Project Outlines
The research project Tropes of Polarity: Visual Representation and AfroDiasporic Identities (2018-2023) analyzed historical and contemporary forms of visual representation in postcolonial and diasporic identities. The construction of identity in relation to postcolonial circumstances, migration and intercultural polarities are of major interest throughout the project. The research focussed specifically on visual representations articulated through the formats of art and photography, whereas the main objectives are drawn from the context of West Africa and its diaspora, particularly from the context of Ghana. The research goals were dedicated to discussing notions of postmemory, potential history and countervisuality within the photographic context, as well as an transcultural form of code switching in the visual that fosters the occurrence of spectral identities.
Research fields include Postcolonial Studies, Media Studies, Memory Studies, Performativity Studies, Semiology, Visual Culture Studies and Arts-based Research.
My current research as part of my postdoctoral project titled A Tree is as Tree: Photography, Memory and Afrodiasporic Identities in the Context of Postmigration (2024-2026) explores how photographs function as mnemonics by transposing Afrodiasporic memory into the Portuguese society. The project questions how photography can connect past, present and future in the complexity of the present to overcome intercultural polarities and prejudices, separation and marginalization. Addressing Portugal as a postcolonial site of global challenges, the project presents the analysis of Afrodiasporic photographs to explore phenomena of identity constructions that point to changes in coexisting cultural identities and perspectives, and proposes a code-switching approach in visual culture. The case studies focus on the notion of transcultural entanglements of (post-)migrants in and with Portuguese society, aiming to initiate a re-coding of preconceived ideas and prejudices and to create an environment that encourages people to look beyond rigid concepts of blackness and ‘re-encounter’ fellow citizens in their diverse cultural identities. The project advocates for a better awareness of the existence of coexisting cultural identities and perspectives and supports the idea of recognizing multiple cultural identities, by providing a platform as a stage for the marginalized, underrepresented and intersecting social identities.
