PICTURES, 2014–2024

Martine Syms’ practice, comprising most notably moving image, installation, publishing and performance, is characterised by acute observations examining imposed and performed identities, and representations of Blackness and gender, offering social commentary imbued with radical humour.

In this book, narratives unfold from the conflicting demands of personal photographs, self-portraits, cinematic and ambient scenes capturing the artist’s gaze, exhibition documentation and research imagery, as distinctions between reality and fiction are blurred.