Sankofa

Description

Chronologically, Sankofa was the last work completed for this project. Thematically and mimetically, this scene reinforces the spherical time of afrofuturism. In the Adinkra tradition, Sankofa symbolizes the aphorism “ Learn from the past, take what is useful.” Sankofa is also an abstraction of a bird figure, at times represented as a bird facing forwards and backwards. This scene exhibits both aspects of the symbol, as an abstracted bird-like figure, fashioned from a Songye power figure, is suspended in midair. The figure is mirrored across the X-axis effectively making it face both directions. On the ground, I carved the sankofa symbol to present the viewer with a path to walk along. This path is carved into a surface that represents extruded and abstracted landmasses, a visual homage to the transnational nature of both settler-colonial modernity and afrofuturism.