Close Up: Sekai Machache
6pm Tuesday 30th June
If you missed the livestream you can watch the recording below
Our third instalment of our Close Up artist talks sees Sekai Machache in conversation with Arpita Shah.
Sekai Machache (b.1989) is based between Dundee and Glasgow, Scotland. Her work is a deep interrogation of the notion of self. Having been born in Zimbabwe and raised in Scotland, she has a particular interest in W.E.B Dubois’ notion of Double Consciousness, which expresses the psychological challenge of having African heritage whilst living in the West.
She is interested in the relationship between spirituality, the imagination and the role of the artist in disseminating symbolic imagery to provide a space for healing. Working in a multi-disciplinary practice, Sekai utilises a wide range of media including but not exclusive to photography. Her photographic practice is formulated through digital studio based compositions utilising body paint and muted lighting conditions to create images that appear to emerge from darkness.
Her series 'Invocation' was featured in 'Notes: Letters to Photography ' (no. 7, Spring/Summer 2020) and she was profiled also in the New Contemporaries section of 'Studies' , the journal of The Scottish Society for the History of Photography. Work as part of 'Body of Land' which was due to be exhibited at Street Level during Glasgow International 2020 from April to June, will now be shown in 2021, dates to be announced. She also features as part of Stills 'Project 20', short exhibition profiles of new work, which can be viewed online between the 19th and the 28th June. Work from 'Body of Land' has also been accepted for the 6th Edition of the Addis Foto Fest in Addis Ababa which has now been postponed to December 2021. Sekai is a founding and organising member of the Yon Afro Collective. See more on Sekai's website here .
Arpita Shah is a photographic artist and educator based in Edinburgh, Scotland. She works between photography and film, exploring the fields where culture and identity meet. She is a co-director of Fòcas Scotland, a photography initiative set up to support emerging photography in Scotland.
All Images: © Sekai Machache
