Island Treasures
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Object Details
Artist/Maker
María Magdalena Campos-Pons, American, born Cuba, 1959
Date
2005
Medium
Dye diffusion transfer prints
Dimensions
Please contact the Museum for more information
Credit
Purchase with David C. Driskell African American Art Acquisition Fund
Accession #
2009.9 a-c
Image Copyright
© Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons
Description
Afro-Cuban artist Magdalena Campos-Pons meditates on the histories of enslavement and globalization that have shaped the Caribbean and her own identity. She created this triptych after visiting Gorée, a small island off the coast of Dakar, Senegal, known for its role in the transatlantic slave trade. Photographing her outstretched hands holding small items she found on the island alongside gathered bundles of sticks, Campos-Pons memorializes this history and connects the labor of her body to those of her ancestors who were forced from Nigeria to Cuba as enslaved laborers in the sugar industry.