Melanie Issaka

Born in 1994 in Ghana, is a London-based visual artist who navigates the complexities of identity where race and gender intersect. Through analog and digital photography and printmaking, she challenges conventional notions of presentation and (re)presentation. Her work probes the dichotomy of private and public spaces, negotiating visibility while embracing materiality to assert physical presence and explore the depths of selfhood.

 

 

Blueprint: Black Skin White Mask

What does it mean to be Black and British, an African in Europe? The series of self-portraits Blueprint: Black Skin, White Mask draws on the notion of the blueprint – the models and structures that govern our society. It plays on the duality of presence, where one can be both hyper-visible and invisible at the same time, referencing Frantz Fanon’s urgent critique of the effects of racism on the psyche, examining how colonial subjects internalize prejudices and stereotypes and eventually emulate the ‘White Masks’ of their oppressors.

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