Black Femininity with Stacey Gillian Abe

Words by Karen Leong

Self portraits created by artist

The work of Stacey Gillian Abe is heavily informed by identity. Autobiographical in nature, personal story and histories are a way for the artist to archive past experiences in the material body. She partitions them into three elements: memory, history, and the gendered praxis of the female experience. As such, Abe is concerned with how the black body has been represented and positioned in history, and seeks to invert that in her work. 

Black Femininity is the frontier of Abe’s work and artistic ethos. Here she creates space for black female bodies to be at ease and to remain vulnerable. Here she is allowed to be whoever she wants to be: relaxed in posture, not trying to do anything but taking up space in any way and by any means. The colour indigo is the nodal heartbeat across her body of work. One element also feeds into another through memory and personal story, which is her preferred method of collating her upbringing in Uganda. Indigo, as a skin and fabric tone speaks to a rich association with royalty. “Symbolism and meaning, they’re all attached to cloth,” says Abe. Subjects for portraiture are plucked from her life — a connection she maintains in integrity to her practice. These subjects inform her past but are also a part of something larger than herself. Moving between the self and the present affords her space to rewrite the stories of her own life. Says the artist, “Memories remind me of the autobiographical aspect of my work, and my purpose: To rewrite history.” 

For Abe, there is no criteria to her artistic process. Inspiration is hailed from a memory or a figure, or a scent that materialises into feeling. She voice records to avoid forgetting. She puts a colour and shape that comes to mind onto the easel from interacting with her sister and mother. They play a tacit role in her welcoming and her art.