Original artwork description:

This is an image of an ex-slave as recorded by the American Archives recorded in photography. I have been searching through these images in the archive, seeking portraits for a series of drypoint etching works titled '12 Disciples'.

During the process of researching these images I am creating this series of monoprints, whereby I am developing a style of realism printing where the monoprints take on the appearance of old photographs, with images that appear to appear and disappear, as though in transition between being remembered and being forgotten.

This was exhibited at the 168 Open at the Royal West of England Academy in Bristol with the poem below.

‘Adieu, to my dear native shore,
To toss on the boisterous wave;
To enjoy my kindred no more,
But to weep – the tears of a slave!

By the sons of freeman I’m borne,
To the land of the free and the brave;
From my wife and children I’m torn,
To weep – the sad tears of a slave!’

Africus-Freedom
March 14th 1828
The Tears of a Slave

Materials used:

Lithographic Ink on Artisico Fabriano

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