"This image was the beginning of my series. It was created in 2020 when there was an artist’s call to reimagine the works of a Dutch painter named Rembrandt in a local context. To go back to the begining I thought about the invention of Africa and the degrading tropes that emerged rendering us invisible. I thought about what it would mean to use the camera as a tool for liberation. Instead of categorizing, defining and subjugating the sitter I chose to emancipate, undo and reclaim her pace in history using photography. I turned to signifiers of tradition in Zimbabwe. Holding a sweeper as a power object contributing to ideas of femineity. I challenged the idea of modernity and tradition through the use of fabric and intentionally worked with fabrics which weren’t silent but bold. The sitters are freed."

—Tamary Kudita