Reclamation of the Exposition

Reclamation of the Exposition uses self-portraiture and digital collage to explore the historical and present day commodification, fetishisation and sexualisation of black women’s bodies.

Reclamation of the Exposition explores the commodification, fetishisation and sexualisation of black women’s bodies, specifically through the human displays in ethnographic expositions in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The series uses and is influenced by ethnographic photographs which were circulated as pornography. Black (and other racial minority) bodies were photographed either naked in front of a white background, stripped of their identity, or surrounded by random tropical plants to make the photographs seem authentic.  The works draw from Prince Roland Napoleon Bonaparte’s photographic collection ‘Boshimans et Hottentots’, where exotic environments were staged to seem genuine and to appeal to European audiences. Using self-portraiture and digital collage Tayo Adekunle explores questions of agency and identity.  Referencing her Nigerian heritage, Adekunle explores the relationship between the past and present ways black women’s bodies are treated.