Cecilia Germain
Sweden
Artist Cecilia Germain thinks of the sea as an archive, as something unstructured and always rocking, but at the same time permanent and eternal. The world's oceans store pain, real stories of power and violence, but also stories of resurrection, restoration and utopian fantasies that give hope and power. The artist captures the stories of the oceans and weaves together transatlantic experiences and memories with other places and people and her own personal story. Almost 2 million Africans were killed by slave traders at sea before they even arrived to America with the transatlantic slave ships from 1550 to 1850. Dream of the Griot is part of this photo serie and captures a man sleeping. The artist makes use of an old large format camera and uses the large negatives to create different layers and assemblage in her work with analog techniques. This creates a psychomagical and autobiographical picture of the artist father.
Aqualung
The watercolour drawing Aqualung represents the many breaths that have sunk down in the aquatic sea but also the breath that this sea holds. In the modern mythology about the Drexciyans, babies carried in the wombs of drowned Black women was born under the surface of the sea. They could breath in water and when they grew up, they created the underwater empire of Drexciya. Another theme in Germains work focuses on sleep as health and healing.
Dream of the Griot
The photo series ”Rest and recovery/Silent resistance” mirrors people of colour sleeping. Here, sleep and rest can be described both as a spiritual practice and a survival strategy to defeat trauma that is triggered by centuries of structural racism. Dream of the Griot is part of this photo serie and captures a man sleeping. The artist makes use of an old large format camera and uses the large negatives to create different layers and assemblage in her work with analog techniques. This creates a psychomagical and autobiographical picture of the artist father.