In Conversation:
Cartographies
of Memory
Bristol, Arnolfini
Join us for a special In-Conversation featuring multidisciplinary Danish-Trinidadian artist Jeannette Ehlers, in dialogue with British film and art curator Karen Alexander.
Ehlers will share and discuss a selection of her video works that foreground black hair as a site for exploring colonialism, history, place and agency. Across cultures, hair and its styles are vital expressions of identity and fashion. For Ehlers, black hair – from afros to braids – serves as a powerful signifier of heritage and resistance, especially in confronting Danish colonialism. The event highlights her dedication to uncovering hidden histories, fostering community solidarity, and celebrating survival and resilience. In her recent series We’re Magic, We’re Real and Diasporic Frequencies, Ehlers uses long cornrows to weave connections between the body, memory and nature.
Conversation moderated by guest curator Karen Alexander.
Screenings
Bristol – Arnolfini
Friday 19 September
With talk featuring Jeannette Ehler, moderated by Karen Alexander.
Jeannette Ehlers is a Danish-Trinidadian artist based in Copenhagen. Ehlers’ practice takes shape experimentally across photography, video, installation, sculpture and performance. Her work explores decolonial hauntings and the possibility of empowerment and healing, serving as a reminder that history is not confined to the past but is firmly grounded in the present. Ehlers has participated in numerous group shows internationally, including the most recent, Prospect 6 in New Orleans, the 15th Havana Biennial, Ocean at Louisiana, Humlebæk, as well as Black Ancient Futures in MAAT in Lisbon, 2024. She is currently a PhD fellow at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and the University of Copenhagen.
Karen Alexander is an independent film and moving image curator, writer and researcher. She is currently the 3D Pathway Leader on BA Fine Art at Central Saint Martins and a consultant with Cinema Rediscovered in Bristol. In 2017 she co-founded the moving-image commissioning platform Philomela’s Chorus and is a regular speaker across the UK’s major arts and cinema venues.
Bustin’ My Knots
2011. 6min 22sec.This video examines power structures and repression rooted in colonialism that continue to affect people of African descent. Drawing on African American hair culture, the work investigates destructive, inherited patterns of thought and the demoralising self-awareness they foster. The video is a 3D animated journey through the nervous system, created from scans of the artist’s own brain.
Cast on Water: Eulogies to Sisterhood Across the African Diaspora
2023. 9min 47sec.Cast on Water celebrates the enduring bonds among women of the African diaspora, formed through shared experiences of joy and pain. This documentation of a live performance at Den Frie Contemporary Art Centre Copenhagen for the 2023 Close Encounters event uses art to transcend time and distance, reinforcing connections between past and present.
Black Bullets
2012. 4min 22sec. Inspired by the Haitian Revolution of 1791, Black Bullets pays tribute to the world’s first successful slave rebellion and the birth of the first black republic. Filmed at La Citadelle in Haiti, the work honours the courage and resilience of those who fought against French colonial rule.
Black Magic at the White House
2009. 4min. Black Magic at the White House features Ehlers performing a vodoun dance at Marienborg - a site linked to Denmark’s slave trade - while rendered nearly invisible through video manipulation. The work confronts colonial amnesia and examines the ongoing impact of the Transatlantic Slave Trade on contemporary Danish society.
Three Steps of the Story
2012. 4min. In Three Steps of the Story, the artist waltzes in a mirrored hall, evoking the historic moment when Governor Peter von Scholten invited ‘free Negroes’ to a ball, scandalizing white society. The video references von Scholten’s proclamation of emancipation for enslaved people on St. Croix in 1848, using Fort Frederick as its symbolic backdrop.