The White Chapel.

Throughout my painting practice there is a particular theme and composition that has continually emerged. Two women engaged in conversation (presumably before or after attending a church service), a young girl (presumably the daughter of one of the two women) moving towards the white chapel or glaring at something in the distance. I was initially unsure of what this image represented to me, or why I felt the need to repeatedly paint it, but as I continued to further explore and research themes regarding West African women and our broader societal roles and expectations, I began to have a deeper understanding of why I was subconsciously centring a white chapel in my paintings, and how it was relevant to West African women in particular.

The church is a central feature in the lives and experiences of many West African women, it plays a significant role in shaping us and informing how we see the world, and because were often indoctrinated from very early, it requires a lot of time and deliberate effort to detach from the teachings of the church in order to come into our own.

I also like to consider the ways in which traditional West African culture intersect with the traditions of Christianity and Catholicsm. For instance having a white Christian wedding as well as a colourful traditional Nigerian wedding is a good example of this. West African Pentecostal churches both on the continent and across the diaspora are also another instance in which Christianity and culture intersects .

Finally, I simply like the look of a big white chapel juxtaposed against a tropical setting like some kind of alien space ship. Something that clearly doesn't belong there, and perhaps never should have been there to begin with?

*Side Note- I exhibited one of the White Chapel paintings as part of my end of year show, and someone remarked that I paint the sky like a British sky (cloudy and moody) which I find interesting as despite being of West African heritage, I was born and raised in England, and have unfortunately never visited Africa, and so the images that I paint are very much of an imagined Africa, West Africa to be specific. I like that aspects of what I know through my lived experience (in this case a cloudy British sky) manages to show up in my depiction of a place that I dream of but am yet to visit.