Philomena Francis has a sweet tooth when it comes to her art
Exhibition: Mo'Lasses IV, The City Gallery, Leicester, April 4 – June 6 2009
Philomena Francis' latest installation of her Mo'Lasses series, Mo'Lasses IV, uses the unconventional method of painting with treacle.
In these good-enough-to-eat paintings, the Jamaican artist uses treacle because of its connotations with the sugar industry and the slave trade that came out of it, and illustrates the ways in which the black female body is understood in the 21st century through brown sugar.
Using these two reference points, Francis suggests the complexity and contradictions of black female identity in contemporary society.
Francis is conscious of the benefits of pushing beyond the traditions of drawing and painting by moving into a much more immediate, sensory realm. The treacle fills the space with its tainted, powerfully evocative aroma.
It is poignant, too, that the rough canvas used in the wall hangings of Francis's Brown Sugar Series are reminiscent of the sacks used to transport sugar processed in small mills during her father’s childhood in Jamaica.
Taking inspiration and influence from a variety of colonial and popular aspects, Francis creates astonishing installations.
