Passenger Seat (Angels in Puerto Rico), Oil and Acrylic on Canvas

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Angels in Puerto Rico merges history and fantasy to reflect the Caribbean as a site shaped by the forced displacement … Read more Angels in Puerto Rico merges history and fantasy to reflect the Caribbean as a site shaped by the forced displacement of West Africans and the formation of diasporic identities. A contemporary Yoruba girl rides a bicycle forward in time, while faint, ghostlike versions of her trail behind as both personal echoes and ancestral presences. These figures suggest the persistent imprint of the past on the present.

Time is treated as a continuous field where past, present, and future coexist, reinforced by a dreamlike atmosphere that blends memory, history, and imagination. The bicycle serves as a metaphor for agency and self-determination, highlighting the need to actively navigate inherited histories. Its dual role as both driver and passenger seat reflects the tension between choice and constraint.

Subtly political, the work connects contemporary Africans to ancestors who laboured in the Caribbean, asserting that while the past shapes us, we remain responsible for our direction. See less