A D A M A D E L P H I N E F A W U N D U

For Mama Adama: Hymns and Parables is a spiritual dialogue between herself and her grandmother Adama. At times, she embodies her grandmother's perspective, seeing through the eyes of the daughter of Adama's first son. Born in the United States, she has only met her grandmother twice due to cost, distance, and the turmoil of civil war—once at age 4 and again at 20. Despite their limited physical time together, their spirits have always been intertwined. As a child, she was captivated by photographs of her grandmother and proudly carries Mama Adama's name. She was also fascinated by Adama's hand-dyed and batik Garra fabrics, which adorned her home in various forms—curtains, tablecloths, pillow covers, and clothing—each piece a unique gift from Adama's skilled hands.

Adama's Garra business thrived in Pujehun, Sierra Leone, from the 1950s until the upheavals of the early 1990s. In her series, she incorporates Adama's fabrics, creating large film negatives and positives to explore a range of photographic techniques. Inspired by the layered textures of Garra fabrics, her artworks include photolumens, cyanotypes, and screen printing on Guinea Brocade textiles and cotton paper. The series incorporates natural and found items from Ghana, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and the American South. Central to her work is the creation of new patterns and visual languages, activating her body and ancestral memories. Her process involves intuitive movement, guiding her gestures through camera-less photographic techniques.

Throughout her creative journey, she contemplates the intricate facets of identity and the deep, multi-layered connections between Africa and its Diaspora.