FF Gaiden: Escape, 2016 

FF Gaiden: Escape, 2016; Larry Achiampong & David Blandy
Comissioned by New Art Exchange, Nottingham for "Untitled: Art on the Conditions of our time"

For Finding Fanon Gaiden: Escape, Achiampong and Blandy worked with members of Nottingham’s Women’s Cultural Exchange, a local support group in Nottingham for women refugees, asylum seekers and those with a migration background.

Through the workshops a range of issues pertinent to the participant’s lives were revealed including tales of migration, frustration at the existing social order and the trauma of Female Genital Mutilation. Retold through their personalised avatar, who, in the video work, journeys freely through their landscape of choice, Escape weaves together a complex tapestry of true stories of identity, cultural history and social change. A sense of travelling through a dystopian alternate reality is created through a synth-driven soundtrack that contextualises the intense, high definition visuals and narratives, and a physical installation that incorporates abandoned technology and materials.

Review by Morgan Quaintance & Kirsty Lang, Front Row, Radio 4, Fri 13 January of 'UNTITLED: art on the conditions of our time', New Art Exchange, Nottingham

Interview with Larry Achiampong, AN (Wayne Burrows)

More info on the FF Gaiden Series