Spike Island Digital Commission, Asmaa Jama
Asmaa Jama is a Somali artist and poet based in Bristol. She is the co-founder of Dhaqan Collective, a feminist art collective of Somali women, centring the voices of women and elders, and privileging co-creation and collaboration. In 2021, Jama was shortlisted for the Brunel African Poetry Prize and the Wasafiri Writing Prize, and longlisted to the National Poetry Competition. Jama is a Cave Canem 2021 Fellow.
The commission takes the form of a teaser for Jama’s new film, Except this time nothing comes back from the ashes, which will be premiered at their upcoming solo exhibition at Spike Island in June 2023.
Made in collaboration with Gouled Ahmed, Except this time nothing comes back from the ashes is a moving image project exploring self-portraiture, archiving and memory. The film follows ghostly, glitchy presences haunting a city, each figure representing those who exist in the margins or the periphery. The work is inspired by African photography studios, which have provided an important context for artistic self-expression, as well as for the sustained practice of communities archiving themselves in local historical records. Filmed in Addis Ababa, this work stems from Jama’s direct engagement with private family collections and archives.