Serwah Attafuah
Born:
1998 in Sydney, Australia
Lives in:
Dharug lands/Western Sydney, Australia
Serwah Attafuah is a multidisciplinary artist and musician based on Dharug land, Western Sydney, Australia. She creates surreal cyber dreamscapes and heavenly wastelands, populated by Afro-futuristic abstractions of self with strong ancestral and contemporary themes. She works with various mediums, including digital painting, 3D animation, motion capture, NFTs and virtual reality.
Attafuah’s practice is influenced by her personal experiences of growing up as a black woman in Australia, as well as her interest in mythology, sci-fi, spirituality and technology. She aims to challenge the stereotypes and expectations of blackness and femininity, and to create new narratives and possibilities for herself and her community.
Serwah Attafuah, 1471, 2024. Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with generous assistance from Create NSW and the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. Courtesy the artist © Serwah Attafuah. Installation view, 24th Biennale of Sydney, Ten Thousand Suns, 2024, Museum of Contemporary Art. Photograph: Hamish McIntosh.
Serwah Attafuah, Between this World & the Next, 2023–2024 (detail). Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with generous assistance from Create NSW and the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. Courtesy the artist © Serwah Attafuah. Installation view, 24th Biennale of Sydney, Ten Thousand Suns, 2024, Museum of Contemporary Art. Photograph: Hamish McIntosh.
Museum of Contemporary Art
Between this World & the Next, 2023-2024
digital 3D render, e-waste, wood
20 minutes, loop
Commissioned by the Biennale of Sydney with generous assistance from Create NSW and the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body
Courtesy the artist
1471, 2024
digital 3D render, electronic goods, e-waste, gold paint
Courtesy the artist
Serwah Attafuah’s digital creation unfolds in a near-future Ghana, drawing viewers into an Afrofuturistic vista contrasting colonial remnants with utopian hope. The narrative, propelled by burning slave castles, sinking colonial ships and formidable female warriors, weaves a tale that is both haunting and empowering. This work embodies Ghana’s matrilineal legacy, while addressing contemporary issues like e-waste dumping, symbolised by a bespoke frame crafted from e-waste and the incorporation of Sakawa, or ‘internet magic’. Responding to William Strutt’s Black Thursday, February 6th, 1851, also on display, Attafuah delves into West African history, land rights and climate impact on its indigenous communities, fostering a dialogue between historical reverence and visionary insight.
Through imaginative storytelling, Attafuah challenges conventional viewpoints and incites refection, offering commentary on transcending historical bounds. Her avant-garde blend of cultural reflections with futuristic aesthetics establishes this work as a conversation between past legacies and speculative horizons, towards a reimagined future.