Through photographs, performances, films and installations James’ work is “deeply rooted in the Black British experience, shaped by the collective voices that emerge from it” she told The Wick. Alongside historical figures depicted in her Firstsite exhibition are those representing the “contemporary Black voice, which reflects the lived realities of Black women, Black students, Black men, African refugees and asylum seekers, and my own experience growing up in 1970s Britain with Caribbean parents.”

James’s Champion for The Wick is Sally Shaw, Director of Firstsite, where James was an artist in residence prior to her current solo exhibition. “I was introduced to Elsa James by another amazing artist – Harold Offeh. I was speaking at an Arts Council event in Cambridge and I was early days finding my feet at Firstsite. Harold said, in a nutshell, you need each other. He was right. Working with Elsa over the last seven years has been an amazing privilege. Elsa has supercharged energy and dedication to her work and the voices and people she is tenderly, respectfully and unequivocally sharing her platform with. In many ways, she has intensified my own creative spirit through our conversations, just as much as I hope I have made a small contribution to empowering Elsa on her own journey. Working with Elsa is a reminder of why being creative – every day – and talking and thinking about the big subjects is critical to building a better future for everyone. Nothing should be shied away from. Everything should be questioned. Life is to be re-collaged continually – and especially in collaboration with those who occupy our past, present and future.”

James has also constructed a studio space as part of the exhibition, where on selected days through the show’s run she has been making Afro Dada works – “a recent development and project in my practice that merges Afrocentric culture with the whimsical, disruptive spirit of Dadaism”, she explains. Allowing visitors to be fully immersed in her process, Afro Dada “explores rupture, erasure, fragmentation, and displacement within Black British, Caribbean, and West African identities, shaped by the British Empire and colonial legacies. Through experimental methods like mark-making, sculpture, and collage, I interrogate these speculative and shifting identities.”

These experiments with techniques resonate with a constellation of Black artists who have influenced James, including Wangechi Mutu, Glenn Ligon and Jeanette Ehlers, to name a few. James also notes music as “another vital force in my process—musicians like Jill Scott, Solange, Miles Davis, and, more recently, Little Simz help shape the emotional and sonic textures of my work.” Sound often appears directly with James work too, either in performances such as Free to Flourish, (at Tate Britain) or in the sound installation that forms part of Beyond the Hold, a new work presented at Firstsite, filling the space and creating a fully immersive environment that dynamically reimagines the archival and shows how the past still shapes us today.