ELLIE MAWBY

This exhibition was based on the theme of American history, using the museum to gain insight into particular social movements or events that have occurred. The museum collection offer a diverse and complex nature of American traditions and from this I made the decision to explore the finer details of slavery. 

While watching a TED talk with the title Skin Colour Is An Illusion presented by Nina Jablonski, she talked briefly about the transatlantic slave movement and touched upon the subject of the health problems that the slaves experienced on top of the abuse they endured. She mentioned the change in climate from Africa to America — high UV to low UV — and the effect it had on the amount of vitamin D they had and how that invoked problems regarding mental health and decay of the immune system.

My work for the exhibition is based on this idea of a lack of vitamin D - hence my use of foods with that vitamin (avocados, eggs, pistachios). Alongside my small-scale sculptural work, I displayed a textiles piece, illustrated with image transfers of body parts, embroidery to depict broken skin and scars, and colours made to look like bruising.