Ananse & The Butterfly

Found canvas, Ink 200 × 150 cm

This work explores inherited Adinkra symbolic systems through the lens of my mixed Jamaican-Ghanaian and English identity. Rather than expressing an intact connection to ancestry, it focuses on fragmentation and the complexities of diasporic inheritance.

Drawing on Adinkra symbolism, I explore how identity can be constructed through material processes rather than direct representation. Recurring motifs include Fafanto (“the butterfly”), symbolising transformation, tenderness, and honesty, and Ananse Ntontan (“the spider’s web”), associated with wisdom and interconnected knowledge. These began as experiments in self-portraiture and have since developed into a broader investigation of inherited forms and contemporary making.

The work considers how cultural knowledge can be engaged when access to ancestral information is partial, interrupted, and continually evolving.