On this ongoing project, I’ve been in contact with traders from around Elephant & Castle, a London neighbourhood that became a hub for South American and other diasporic communities, and which, in 2021 saw the demolition of its largest commercial centre, the Elephant & Castle Shopping Centre and the eviction of its traders. There is an ongoing threat to remaining businesses in the area, which suffer under so-called “regeneration” plans: the community risks losing a space that functions as a vital support network for many people and that establishes a crucial social foundation of belonging.
The project consists of a visual and conceptual research in the area and aims to document poetics, stories, and themes that result from the rise of a community built in parallel to the conventional and exclusionary Western infrastructures in the UK, alluding to Benedict Anderson’s theory of imagined communities, but as an expression of support for the community instead of exclusion of others.
The process of creating and producing each image comes through after establishing relationships with the subjects, and listening to the stories they tell.
Alongside the portraits and pictures of exotic Brazilian fruit and flowers are images of pre-columbian art, the kind of objects found at the British Museum, not far from the area, steamed as valuable assets; and a cut out of a South American brand mascot found in a market at Elephant road.
The elements brought together invokes reflection on the contrast of their economic and cultural value, from the community and the British authority perspectives.
Elizabeth, 2023.
Nylza, 2023.
Morenada dancer, 2022.
Siria, 2023.