Kuandika

Below are some of my artist highlights from the Venice Biennale this year. Each artist represented here profiles the experience of people of colour, simultaneously 'decentering' the Western canon so prevalent within the arts. The images selected make visible the 'Black body' in various environments and guises, and can be seen as drawing attention to the 'hyper-visibility' of the 'Black body' in society on the one hand, whilst on the other hand Black people have historically been rendered 'invisible' in art history. Njideka Akunyili Crosby Lynette Yiadom-Boakye Kudzanai Violet-Hwami Henry Taylor Khalil Joseph Tavares Strachan Henry Taylor

Visual arts and literature can both be said to be modes by which we can explore the human condition. Through them we can encounter new perspectives, new realities and discover new possibilities. We can also question who is allowed to speak, and who is spoken for. These possibilities show only some of the many connections between the two art forms, and thus creates a basis within which interdisciplinary bridges can be created. Ingrid Pollard is a photographer, media artist and researcher based in the UK. Her art practice is concerned with representation, history and landscape with reference to race, difference and the materiality of lens-based media. The work of Pollard which I am looking at here focuses on the idyllic, romanticised representation of British countryside that Pollard disrupts and challenges through the juxtaposition of issues of around identity and belonging. Photography and text are placed together each a necessary part of the issues that Pollard wants to ...