Afro-fabulations 9

Rashaad Newsome (b.1979) creates hybrid figures, using both physical and digital techniques to collage them from different materials and source images. They are interested in collage as a metaphor for the construction of African American identity based on memories and fragments of the cultures in Africa. Newsome takes much of their source material from objects from Africa that are now held in museums in Europe and America. They combine them to create new figures, often with images from different perspectives in a technique Newsome describes as ‘Neo-Cubism’.

Tania Moore, 2024

Newsome combines different imagery to subvert common expectations of gender expression. Here, a typically masculine tattooed body wears high heeled shoes that are made from relief carving. The face is composed from different sculptures including the headdress of a Benin bronze. It is framed by an afro hairstyle created from lava overlaid with plaits.

Tania Moore, 2024