Barby Asante

Artist/ Curator/Researcher working in performance, social Practice, Black Feminism, decoloniality, memory and place

Staff details

Barby Asante

Position

Lecturer in Fine Art Critical Studies

Department

Art

Email

b.asante (@gold.ac.uk)

Barby Asante, is an artist, curator, and educator, working in social practice, film, performance, collective writing, and the creation of transformative spaces for ritual and healing. Her work aims to dismantle the enduring impacts of slavery and colonialism in contemporary experiences by delving into the dynamics of place, space, and memory.

Rooted in Black feminist and decolonial methodologies of research, collective study, making, collaborating, and imagining, Asante creates intimate spaces for reflection and dialogue. Her practice draws inspiration from her Akan heritage, family, and broader African Diaspora histories. She examines the connections between post-colonial migrations, revealing conflicting experiences and understandings of history and memory in the U.K. and Europe, inviting collaborators and viewers into a questioning of race, gender, space, and place, to engage with the complex politics embedded within our embodiment and geographic configurations.

Academic qualifications

  • BA Hons Fine Art Time Based Media, University of East London 1995
  • MA Visual Culture, Middlesex University 1999
  • Practice Based PhD, CREAM University of Westminster 2022

Research interests

My research interests are diverse and intersect various critical themes. I focus on Black Feminism and decolonial theory foregrounding the work and knowledges of African, Caribbean, Latin American, and Indigenous thinkers, practitioners and communities. Exploring the implications of bringing a decolonial Black feminist perspective to art practice, institutions and curation I also focus on what it is to think about and practice social justice, care work, environmental justice, and abolition within these contexts. I also have an interest in thinking about expanded ways of thinking about the sources of knowledge bringing West African cosmologies and philosophies into how I am thinking about and understanding Black Feminism and decolonial theories. My inquiries extend to archives, memory practices, and hauntology in art Practice, rethinking conventional archival approaches.

My artistic practice encompasses social practice and performance which has also driven me to explore performativity and performance Studies, particularly concerning race, gender, and queer performative theories. To connect this with my interested in a decolonial Black feminist approach to these practices I extend my interest into liberatory pedagogies such as those proposed by Paulo Friere, bell hooks, Fred Moten and Stefano Harney who's ideas on study, collective learning and reciprocity connect with my approach to art practice, research and my teaching. I am also interested in the ways that new and emergent thinkers, practitioners and activists in these fields are developing ways to think about and challenge our conventional understanding of social, participatory and education practice in the arts.

Additionally, I explore expanded and supportive writing practices for art students, alongside delving into speculative fiction/theory, auto theory, and experimental writing as innovative forms of critical expression within the artistic sphere.

Publications and research outputs

Article

Audio

Book Section

Conference or Workshop Item

Film/Video

Performance

Professional Activity

Project

Show/Exhibition

Thesis