Relic Traveller is the title of artist Larry Achiampong’s ongoing project addressing issues around migration, displacement, nationhood and post-colonialism. Across performance, audio, moving image, and prose, Achiampong’s work blends aspects of Afrofuturism, autobiography, comic book stories, and gaming. Relic Traveller follows a young protagonist, a symbol of hope and possibility who wanders through a near-future United Kingdom collecting stories as if they form clues to a forgotten Empire, the downfall of the West and the collapse of the colonialism.
The work has been developed over time and across various sites, building upon a post-colonial perspective concerned with ideas surrounding class, identity and technology.
Various strands of the project’s first phase are presented in Tate Exchange. A mixed media installation consisting of films, an audio Testimony pulled from Achiampong’s film Relic 1 that details experiences of oppression and trauma from an unnamed narrator, research material including books, and the Relic Traveller’s suit.
The artist will be in residency during the week and within the space at the following times:
Monday 15 January, 10.00 - 17.00
Tuesday 16 January, 10.00 - 13.00
Saturday 20 January, 14.00 - 17.00
Sunday 21 January, 10.00 - 14.00
The residency will culminate in a performance titled Voyage of the Relic Traveller featuring Larry Achiampong and fellow artist Shiraz Bayjoo on Sunday 21 January at 14.00.
Directly linked with Achiampong’s Afrofuturist project Relic Traveller, Voyage of the Relic Traveller simultaneously combines visuals depicting historical, present and future colonial narratives accompanied by an intense, beat-driven live soundtrack of remixed audio and spoken word.
About the Artists
Larry Achiampong's solo and collaborative projects employ imagery, visual archives, live performance and sound to explore ideas surrounding class, cross-cultural and post-digital identity – in particular, dichotomies found within a world dominated by social media and digital frameworks. He lives and works in London.
Shiraz Bayjoo is a Mauritian London-based artist whose practice spans painting, photography, and video. His work is concerned with ideas of nationhood and the exploration of identity and histories of colonialism, migration and trade using archival photographs and artefacts.