ABSTRACT
I identify first as an artist, author, and curator; my sexuality and ethnicity are also at play in my work, as well as in situations where I find myself as a member of the public. When my art is on display, labels are attached to gallery walls to provide the audience with an opening for dialogue with each piece. Thus I am frequently labeled both in my person (as “openly” queer, of mixed race) and in my other body-my art. I am also an immigrant, having moved to London in 1981. Perhaps I am not what comes to mind when the word is generally used. Mawuna Remarque Koutonin (2015), editor of Silicon Africa, recently posted an insightful piece, “Why Are White People Expats When the Rest of Us Are Immigrants?” He argues: “In the lexicon of human migration there are still hierarchical words, created with the purpose of putting white people above everyone else. One of those remnants is the word expat.”
