Rodell's design responds to the theme ‘Mother Africa’, which explores the richness and reality of Africa before the Transatlantic Trade in Enslaved Africans; the impact of the Transatlantic Trade in Enslaved Africans and European colonialism on Africa; and considers and celebrates Africa’s present and future.

My inspiration for this piece was a combination of painting and photographs redrawn and repainted. I have created a montage of paintings, drawing and paper works using spray paint, Posca pens and photocopies.

My intention was to create an image that was stark and bold with facts and quotations for the viewer to ponder and consider about the ramifications of the Transatlantic Trade in Enslaved Africans and its damming legacy. I wanted something more graphic and poster-like, with the use of paintings and photographic mash ups.

Rodell Warner (b. 1986) is a Trinidadian artist working primarily in new media and photography. His works have been exhibited at The Whitney Museum of American Art in the 2016 Dreamlands exhibition as part of the collective video project Ways of Something, and at The National Gallery of Jamaica in the 2016 exhibition Digital, and at the 10th Berlin Biennale in 2018 in I’m Not Who You Think I’m Not #14. Rodell is a recipient of the 2011 Commonwealth Connections International Arts Residency, and the 2014 summer residency at NLS Kingston, and was commissioned in 2017 to create the Davidoff Art Edition, a series of five artworks printed onto a limited edition of five thousand boxes of luxury cigars and presented and sold at Art Basel in Hong Kong, Miami, and Basel. Rodell lives and works between Port of Spain in Trinidad, Kingston in Jamaica, and Austin, Texas, in the US.

http://www.rodellwarner.com

Mussarat's design responds to the theme ‘The Reality of Being Enslaved’, which makes real the experience of those people who were enslaved, from their capture, captivity and voyage to lives and deaths enslaved in different contexts, places and generations.

My globe was influenced by the ancient roots of Mother Africa, and their legacy, spiritual roots and ancestral connections to the cosmos. My artwork engaged though placemaking with the key elements such as the heads, the hands, and the movement on the globe. Since the beginning of humanity's ability to travel across the seas, Africa has always captured the imagination. But this led to the murder and enslavement of a continent – fragmenting each country – by white men who distorted the purity, history and culture of Africa itself; bringing death, dis-ease, and fracturing societies instead of acknowledging the continent’s inherent beauty.

The hands represent the countries, nations of Africa, and show the multiculturalism and the rich tapestry of people who live there. The heads represent the powerful lineage of women and men whose roots can be traced through their ancestry. The guns represent power –when you can't control a nation, guns are used. The bullets represent the brutalisation of a nation; for the white man's greed how much blood has been shed? Here you can see the guns have a double element – the candle flames – which represent peace after conflict.

The head inside a head represents recognition of the ancestral links, connecting into a deep inner wisdom that is intergenerational, passed down by mother to child. Both heads represent the passing on of ancestral wisdom of the elders making a connection to the younger generations who will take up the mantle and champion the rights of Mother Africa; a call to its warriors of wisdom, always seeking the flame of truth.

The flame represents innate spiritual wisdom, truth, justice, harmony and peace – burning eternally for Mother Africa.

Mussarat Rahman is a community artist and poet. For the last few years she has been experimenting with 3D art and installations with a variety of community groups and festivals. She runs social action projects, and delivers community programmes with different communities, and in particular with refugees and asylum seekers. Her work addresses themes of migration and movement, religion, spirituality, materialism, politics, and gender. She designs projects around local and global issues which affect society and particularly affect communities. Her projects are designed to create a reaction and be interactive to engage audiences.

https://www.saatchiart.com/mussaratrahman

Gherdai's design responds to the theme ‘Abolition & Emancipation’, which shares the story of the campaign for abolition, its key events, heroes and allies. It also lays bare the full, messy motivations and process of abolition, which were not as pure as often represented.

The ship ‘The Enterprise, en route from Alexandria, Virginia to Charleston, South Carolina, encountered a storm, and washed onto Bermuda's harbour with cargo of mainly mothers with suckling babies and children aged five or six. More than fifty of the enslaved people on the ship were children, most of whom had been kidnapped by raiders from their Washington and Maryland plantain homes. 

After emancipation in the British colonies, the price of enslaved people in the southern states of the US were at a premium. The children and mothers on board the ship, were to be re-sold into slavery in South Carolina. The ship’s captain was informed that slavery was already abolished in Bermuda, so in Bermuda waters the people would be considered free. The people were not listed in the ship’s manifest; it only included tobacco, bricks and feed. A legal battle ensued. 

The captain argued that the people were not Bermudian, they were American, and the ship was not intentionally in Bermudian waters since the boat was headed from a Northern US port to a southern one. A Bermudian organisation, The Colored Family Society heard about the ship, and advocated for their immediate release. All 78 persons on board the ship appeared in court and were permitted to decide for themselves if they wanted to remain in Bermuda or return to the ship. All chose freedom except one woman and her five children who chose to return to the US. 

This globe is in honour of the children of The Enterprise, who chose freedom for themselves and became Bermudian by way of the ocean.I construct and deconstruct identity, revealing layers of history and the complexities of post-colonial and Afro-Caribbean heritage. Currently my research work is investigating the onion and its relationship to Bermuda archives. I use the onion as a metaphor for identity. 

In Bermuda, the people are affectionately referred to themselves as ‘onions’, which dates back to the island’s production of onions during slavery. Black women were ‘minders’ of the onion seed, meaning the main caretakers of the cash crop that made Bermuda wealthy. I am using the layers of the onion in parallel with the layers of my Alibii figures, who represent the mothers on board The Enterprise.

Gherdai Hassell is a Bermudian born, China trained, multidisciplinary contemporary artist, writer and storyteller, based in Manchester, UK. Her work investigates memory and nostalgia to construct and deconstruct identity. She uses collage and painting to thread and weave histories, and tales of transformation passed down through family lineages. Her work typically centres female bodies, simultaneously existing within realms of past, present, and future. Her work is ultimately about migration, a gradual process of being and becoming the future. Her multimedia work reimagines relationships with the body as avatar, social space and the invisible world. Her artwork is a part of public and private collections across the world.

https://www.gherdaihassell.com

Kwaku's design responds to the theme ‘Still We Rise’, which recognises and honours the enslaved and their descendants who resisted, who succeeded, and who broke new ground. We honour the well-known and celebrated, and shed light on untold legacies and events.

This globe looks to recognise how even when faced with adversity, cooperation and sacrifice within the Black community has led to the conquering of obstacles and barriers throughout history. From our darkest times in slavery and colonialism, to problems faced today, people of African descent have somehow managed to thrive, excel and ascend into a reimagined future.

My design focuses on themes of sacrifice and cooperation to rise and excel through adversity. The kneeling figures holding up the path above represent those who have sacrificed so much to overcome obstacles in their journey; laying a firm foundation from which their descendants can build on and continue to climb higher.

Despite this narrative starting in darkness, the figures are adorned with golden halos to show that this is not the beginning of our story – in fact the destination at the top of the globe is one they have been to before. Whilst each step signifies a new generation, the figures are shown helping each other ascend from the darkness and towards a brighter future.

Kwaku Anokye is promising young artist from Ghana and Dominica. He was born in Hong Kong and has lived in Tokyo, London and Ghana. Working primarily with acrylic, spray and oil paint; Kwaku has also worked digitally and in fashion.

Despite his classical and figurative background in portraiture and live drawing; Kwaku’s work has become more abstract, drawing from his diverse upbringing to inform his artistic style. He combines elements of traditional African art and hip-hop culture to graffiti and Japanese Manga, using simplistic figures and bold colours to explore his past experiences.

Through his art, Kwaku strives to understand, and reconcile the different thoughts, episodes and emotions which continue to define him as a person and as an artist; creating complex, abstract compositions to highlight how perceived dichotomies within the human experience can work together in harmony.

This sentiment is best illustrated by the two Adinkra symbols which act as his signature, and appear on his globe: Nkonsonkonson (a chain link), a symbol representative of the strength which results from unity; and Ese ne tekrema, a proverb explaining that like teeth and tongue within the mouth, elements that coexist may have conflict, but must work together for the entity to thrive.

Follow on Instagram

Emmanuel's design responds to the theme ‘Expanding Soul’, which celebrates the spirit and culture of the African diaspora that, even in the face of incredible suffering, has endured and found vibrant expression across the world in music, art, food and so much more.

Parallel Empires, Ancestral Kingdoms presents the notion that mythological energy of African ancestral nobility appears to manifest in contemporary culture; avenues such as music, fashion, sport, academia, carnival and more.

Speaking to the heart and soul of nations, these successful individuals come as one, but stand as ten thousand; expanding the mind through their respective mediums and celebrating the visible integration of cultural exchange into a globalised world. 

Fragmented faces signify fragments of known history collaged with multimedia hand-drawn and painted layers to interpret their subjects' emotion and metaphysical reflection. An inverse ode to cubism highlighting a silent conversation between European masters and African sculptural aesthetics.

Rhythm and blues breathes in lines and colours; purples and blue symbolise the bruises of the past that are not visible on black skin. Illustrative leaf motifs inspired by Ankara fabric patterns and red leaves reference African griot storytelling traditions through sound. 

This design pays homage to the synergy of griot storytellers, specifically African American singers; Billie Holiday’s Strange Fruit, Nina Simone, and Kanye West’s Blood on the Leaves.

Emmanuel Unaji was born in 1994 in London. He studied fashion design and completed a degree in Fine Art at Kingston School of Art, London in 2020. Dubbed by British GQ as the Nigerian Artist reinterpreting fashion illustration, Unaji’s a polymath who’s multidisciplinary practice is a wide spectrum, spanning fine and commercial artforms freely combining painting, drawing, collage and product design with adept experience in High Fashion, modelling for Brands such as Gucci, British GQ, Adidas amongst others. Emmanuel has carved out his own space, at the junction of luxury, performance and fine art, where he mechanically deconstructs select images and identities that the media offer up to us. Emmanuel is interested in engaging the viewer in a conversation, by exploring what lies beneath the surface of content that we consume. The essence of Emmanuel’s art practice navigates the socioeconomic dichotomy of creativity and business, investigating the intersection of autonomy and public persona, self and celebrity.

https://www.emmanuelunaji.com/

Ali's design responds to the theme ‘Reimagine the Future’, which gives us free rein to imagine the society we can create when we have a full understanding of our shared history; the place the UK can hold in the world when it acknowledges its past; and who we can be as people and a country when we give full dignity to all.

Represented through the art of quilting, this design celebrates the vividly complex stories of pain, oppression, freedom, and power of African American culture.

Originally African textiles were made by men, the slave division of work according to Western patriarchal practices in the United States meant women took over the tradition. A combination of traditional African appliqué techniques mixed with traditional European quilting styles brought African American quilts to life. These quilts tell stories, documenting family trees, remembering departed loved ones, and sharing faith. Using discarded scraps from cloth, quilts were made from gunny sacks to old blankets and worn clothes. The use of symbols, bright colours, vertical pieces, enlarged graphic designs, and asymmetry originated from African textile styles. 

A break in a pattern symbolised rebirth in ancestral power with a break in a pattern helped keep spirits away. Evil was believed to travel in straight lines and this break confused the spirits and slowed them down. Many of the incorporated symbols remain unknown. 

Stories exist about the role quilts may have had in the Underground Railroad, although researchers have found little actual evidence of codes in the quilt blocks or messages in quilts hanging on clothes-lines. Fact or myth, the idea of a quilt code is compelling: instead of a pen and paper, the quilts use a needle and scraps of fabric to provide a unique history of lives and culture. Stitch by stitch, bringing together a larger picture, articulating a rich and complicated story of our shared history.

The extraordinary needlework skills in these quilts undoubtedly tell human stories, some not easy to tell, but each deserving a platform. My design explores these ideas, choosing no single unifying style, but celebrating the uniqueness and individuality of each quilt maker.

Ali is a Northumberland based professional artist who studied and worked in the fashion and textiles industry. Her artworks observe the composition of patterns as an artform. Using the irregularities found in the everyday she builds a repetition of elements that begin to tell a story. 

Ali has previously painted her designs onto a variety of large scale sculptures and is a published illustrator, helping create books that have become best sellers. As an environmental artist, her current work is inspired by the textures and the chaotic patterns of the underwater world. With an emphasis on illustration, her work blends traditional painting with digital techniques. Her work is commissioned commercially by clients in the UK, USA, Europe and Australia.