Josie is an artist currently based in Glasgow. Josie’s piece ‘My Ladye with Mekle Lippis’ has been featured on BBC Scotland loop series. Josie describes the significance of this piece by saying “In this piece, I have responded to a poem by Scottish poet William Dunbar titled ‘Of Ane Blak-Moir’ which records the documentation of the presence of an African women in Scotland in the 16th century.
By integrating craft practises into my work, I use its relegated status in the art world to address the identity politics of marginalised groups. In addition, by interacting with craft practises, my work celebrates the art from these communities that is often left out the canon of art history.
This rejection of the Western art canon and the white gallery space, is a theme that perpetuates throughout my work as I incorporate mixed media techniques to present a new reimaged depiction of the Black body. The collection of these materials and embellishments makes the work loud, seducing the viewer into looking at it. My figures consequently become unavoidably noticeable, counteracting the erasure of Black women in art history. My construction of the women with irregular limbs and glittery bodies, glorifies the handmade and rebelliously drifts from the norms of Western painting traditions, re-evaluating conventional Western art ideals.” See Josie’s full explanation of this work in Issue 01.
