The Binding -Repair

In 2020, during the height of the pandemic, a conservationist at the Smithsonian Museum of African Art, Julia Campbell-Such undertook work on repairing one of the ‘shadow’ sculptures that make up one component of The Binding Installation. An ultra-violet photograph was taken of the sculpture with the ‘missing’ soldiers and a colour bar. When the image was sent to me I was struck by metaphor of repair, literally of the sculpture and metaphorically of the need for repair in this context.