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Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome (Afrikan Kinship System series)

I stand naked between portraits Jack and Delia, two enslaved Africans who were captured and worked on a plantation in South Carolina, photographed by Joseph T. Zealy, commissioned by naturalist Louis Agassiz. Inbetween the Jack and Delia, naked and without their liberty, I stand naked but not vulnerable, empathising but not experiencing their life. Respectful though knowing there is no gesture I can make that reaches their sacrifice. The work is titled Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome after the theory of Dr Joy Degruy, who discusses the trauma on the contemporary African body as a result of the shock of the atrocity of slavery.