Artist Films:
Colonial Threads
Thursday 22 May, 19:00
Barbican, Cinema 2
Full duration: 63min
Bringing together films by three contemporary artists – John Akomfrah, Shireen Seno and Osbert Parker – this programme explores how textiles and dress are directly implicated in histories of land, colonialism, migration and trade. Collectively, the films highlight the ways colonial systems have commodified both people and nature, using tools like fashion and visual representation to assert control and erase indigenous identities. Migration emerges as both a consequence of exploitation and a site of resilience, where displaced communities carry cultural memory through material forms like clothing. These works challenge viewers to reconsider historical narratives, exposing the environmental and social costs of colonial legacies while emphasising the interconnectedness of humanity and nature.
Tropikos
UK, 2016. Dir. John Akomfrah (Smoking Dogs Films), 36min, EnglishSet against the waterways of South West England and the coasts of Africa, Tropikos presents a haunting reimagination of 16th-century encounters between British and African peoples during the dawn of the transatlantic slave trade. This was an era during which Britain’s rise as a global seafaring power coincided with millions of African people being displaced across the Atlantic. Through meticulously crafted tableaux and luxurious Renaissance costumes contrasted with the coarse, utilitarian garments of enslaved Africans, Akomfrah interrogates how fashion served as both a marker of status and a tool of dehumanisation.
Timeline
UK, 2021. Dir. Osbert Parker, 10min, English 'Commissioned by London’s Migration Museum, Timeline traces lines formed by nature and culture – cracks in walls, tree branches, geological strata, outstretched strings or textile print. These lines symbolically evoke British migration as a ‘journey’ that is ever-evolving yet also anchored to the earth and soil. Through its heightened materiality, Parker’s imagery conveys the physically visceral, environmental and social impacts of migration, positioning fashion and fabric as a subtle thread within these narratives over 400 years.
To Pick a Flower
Philippines, 2021. Dir. Shireen Seno, 17min, English Using archival images from the American occupation of the Philippines (1898–1946), Shireen Seno’s film essay draws parallels between the commodification and extraction of forests and the subjugation of people. The film highlights the role of fashion in these histories, inviting reflection on how self-representation can perpetuate or challenge ecological and cultural harm. The act of picking a flower becomes a metaphor for the violent transformation of landscapes into resources under imperial rule. Through its highly evocative photographs, To Pick a Flower critiques the medium’s complicity in both documenting and shaping Western ideologies of domination over nature.
Tropikos
UK, 2016. Dir. John Akomfrah (Smoking Dogs Films), 36min, EnglishSet against the waterways of South West England and the coasts of Africa, Tropikos presents a haunting reimagination of 16th-century encounters between British and African peoples during the dawn of the transatlantic slave trade. This was an era during which Britain’s rise as a global seafaring power caused the displacement and enslavement of millions of African people. Through meticulously crafted tableaux and luxurious Renaissance costumes contrasted with the coarse, utilitarian garments of enslaved Africans, Akomfrah interrogates how fashion served as both a marker of status and a tool of dehumanisation.
Timeline
UK, 2021. Dir. Osbert Parker, 10min, English Commissioned by London’s Migration Museum, Timeline traces lines formed by nature and culture – cracks in walls, tree branches, geological strata, outstretched strings or lines printed on textiles – to symbolically evoke British migration as a ‘journey’ that is ever-evolving yet also anchored to the earth and soil. Through its heightened materiality, Parker’s imagery conveys the physically visceral, environmental and social impacts of migration, positioning fashion and fabric as a subtle thread within these narratives over 400 years.
To Pick a Flower
Philippines, 2021. Dir. Shireen Seno, 17min, English Contemplating archival images from the American occupation of the Philippines (1898–1946), Shireen Seno’s film essay draws parallels between the commodification and extraction of forests and the subjugation of people. The film highlights the role of fashion in these histories, inviting reflection on how self-representation can perpetuate or challenge ecological and cultural harm. The act of picking a flower becomes a metaphor for the violent transformation of landscapes into resources under imperial rule. Through its highly evocative photographs, To Pick a Flower critiques the medium’s complicity in both documenting and shaping Western ideologies of domination over nature.