Primarily working in the mediums of textiles and performance, my practice tells stories of the multilayered experience that is Black womanhood – both personal and collective. Since 2016, I have mainly used stockings as my modality of expression.

Under the title Nude Me/Under the Skin, the continuing series investigates how nude hosiery marginalises the Black woman. By intersecting the garment’s history with that of Black women, the work highlights its deep racial, socioeconomic and ecological impacts dating as far back as colonialism and slavery. Other themes examined include Black dancers in the ballet industry, Windrush era Black nurses and waste colonisation. In creating the works, the stockings are moulded and contorted into new forms using handicrafts such as knitting and weaving.

The works – be they live performances or art objects – serve as encoded vessels that transform Black women’s experiences and embodied trauma into healing acts. They are an attempt to subvert stereotypical and historical norms while reclaiming Black women’s visibility and femininity.

Through my practice, I aim to deliver the collective consciousness to a place of awareness and create pathways to Black women’s true sense of self.

Instagram: @enamgd