Ghost in the Machine
Ghost in The Machine (2023), wooden box, metal, wood, textile, thread, 45 x 30x 18 cm


"Ghost in the Machine" is a multimedia installation incorporating sculptural forms, found objects, textiles, and sound. The work examines the hypervisibility and erasure of Blackness in the collective socio-cultural imagination, critiquing how Black representation is often commodified as a spectacle of pain.

Rooted in the metaphor of a "ghost," the installation explores the enduring presence of marginalized bodies within spaces of displacement, malfunction, and erasure. The tactile juxtaposition of delicate threads with rigid industrial materials mirrors the tension between vulnerability and resilience, while the soundscapes evoke ancestral echoes intertwined with contemporary dissonance. These elements converge to destabilize the viewer’s expectations, facilitating a deconstruction of dominant narratives and opening pathways to alternative meanings.

Through its deliberate embrace of rupture, "Ghost in the Machine" interrogates the systemic failures rooted in colonial histories, revealing the silent labor and resilience of marginalized lives within digital and mechanical systems. Indeed, When we are presented with ready-made images of otherness, can we see what resists from within? What traces do we leave behind in systems that fail to acknowledge our existence? And how can these "malfunctions" become spaces of resilience, transformative counterworlds, and renewal?  

The work gestures toward healing and empowerment by invoking the fluid, transformative presence of Mami Wata. By criss-crossing temporalities and struggles, "Ghost in the Machine" imagines a world where resilience and resistance transcend the confines of colonial time and space.  







Ghost in the Machine II
Ghost in The Machine (2023),multimedia Installation: threads, metal, found objects, sound, wood, textile, variable dimensions

Access the video of the installation here
< https://vimeo.com/892574825 >