John Akomfrah

John Akomfrah is a British artist, filmmaker and writer who investigates how identity can be seen as a product of history and memory rather than something fixed. The Unfinished Conversation is a three screen installation that was based at the Tate Modern to give the view of how Stuart Hall grew up in his society and culture to become one of the founding figures of the new left political movement. By using archival footage of Hall alongside an interview and historical events, they interweave over three screens in order to create and discover of a personal and political history. Akomfrah’s other works is also displayed over three screens.

I enjoyed researching Akomfrah’s work as I feel that this is very personal to me – bringing pieces together and interweaving them into a large piece to share a story. The use of the three projections in an installation is also somewhat unique and also beautiful. For me, it allows you to take multiple descriptions in and different sides to the same story, which is something I feel like I would enjoy bringing into my work.