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What is called the imagination (from image, magi, magic, magician, etc.) is a practical vector from the soul. It stores all data, and can be called on to solve all our “problems.” The imagination is the projection of ourselves past our sense of ourselves as “things.” Imagination (image) is all possibility, because from the image, the initial circumscribed energy, any use (idea) is possible. And so begins that image’s use in the world. Possibility is what moves us.
—Amiri Baraka, “The Revolutionary Theatre”, Liberator, July 1965
Marcia Michael
Marcia Michael a multidisciplinary artist received her BA in Photography from Derby University. Michael gained her MA in photography at UAL and this is where she is currently researching as a PhD candidate. In her practice, Michael reconstructs and critiques an archive of black British life through the auspices of a black family album.
In extending her photographic search for her matrilineal ancestry Michael turned to her mother’s body as her archive and thus began a quest to reignite a tradition of black matrilineage. In 2016 as part of Autograph ABP partnership, Michael partook in a residency at Lightwork USA and in 2018 Autograph ABP exhibited a selection of works from ‘The Object of My Gaze’, Michael’s current project, which introduces this concept of matrilineage.
Michael’s work has been shown internationally. She has won awards for her photographic work and has received numerable global honourable mentions.
University of The Arts London (UAL), Ph.D. Candidate