This fineliner pen portrait depicts Hajjah Aliya, my great grandmother, on a map of Sierra Leone from the 1940s. Direct links to the capital of Sierra Leone, Freetown, are displayed on the antique ground. The matriarch of my family has lived her entire life in Freetown, so this cohesion of subject and canvas was clear. With the lines of the map deliberately embedded within the contours and wrinkles of my great grandmother’s face; a motif representative of the navigation of the African diaspora.
This artwork was awarded the Under 30s Prize at The Drawing Society Annnual Exhibition 2019.