Done Begging: Art and Rights

I make music and sound to help me hold emotional, intellectual, energetic vibrations I don’t feel able to carry alone because they seem too intense for my body to hold. This soundscape is about the embodied work and conversations it takes to de-construct the idea that there is a unique and 'better' way of being human that we all need to gain access to. What it takes to uproot that lie from the inside out, because we are so much more magical and vast. It’s about refusing to weave our struggles for liberation into a fabric that may well never be colourful enough.

There was never just one way of ‘going forward’, yet that is what centuries of western colonialism and capitalism tricked us into thinking. Done Begging is a heartfelt cry, calling for the truth that liberation from power structures is a liberation for all of us, including those who've been conditioned to believe that their privilege and access to institutions makes them better or more desirable and lovable people.

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"I started considering the places that are houses of detention, spaces for inmates to be incarcerated and have their rights removed. And then I wondered who was being kept in order."

"Living in London, I do not feel the fear of being myself [...] and that strength was given to me by London."

A film work made up of conversations, unravelling the nuances of what a metropolitan city does to or for an individual and asking: how do you define a Londoner? Who is afforded that title?

Living in one of the most expensive cities in the world can be enriching and difficult at the same time. While the city is constantly changing with new developments centred around regeneration, the politics and polarity of the city are visible, triggering conversations and making privilege apparent.

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When I look at my photos, made during art workshops with refugee children in Greece, I see children who refuse to stop, who create opportunities for fun and play everywhere. I also feel a personal weight and pull to do better for them.

My own personal connection to the European ‘refugee crisis’ is through the knowledge that my ancestors were brought to America through trafficking and enslavement while both my grandparents were immigrants. I was left with this feeling of "Why are we here. Why are we still trying to come here?"

I’ve always thought of rights as basic needs, which really translates into the bare minimum and this is never enough. To think of those given rights as an option, something malleable, something you can prioritise was a refreshing angle and it made me want to explore what children and young people would say and what rights they would choose for themselves.

Children have the right to childhood, and we have a collective responsibility to ensure this. But making these photographs also raised issues of privacy and ethics. I find myself questioning whether we should document traumatic experiences at all. Is my urge to document voyeuristic? What does my unease in sharing the images mean?