In “See Me When I Am Ready!”, I explore the expectations placed on Black women to perform. Drawing on my experience as a black woman living in a Western European context, the work examines how the Black female body is rarely perceived neutrally. Instead, it is read through inherited stereotypes and projections that shape expectations of how we should look, behave and exist.

Through staged portraits, wall texts and video, I explore the tension between projected identities and lived experience. Parallel monologues of comments I have heard throughout my life appear alongside the portraits, revealing how assumptions about Black women’s bodies, expressions and emotions continue to influence how they are perceived. The video features Black women in moments of non-performance. In front of my camera, they are not under any pressure to entertain, explain themselves or make themselves understandable to others. Simply existing becomes an act of quiet resistance.

Rather than offering a singular narrative, “See Me When I Am Ready !”creates space to question the expectations imposed on Black women and the biases that sustain them. It invites you to reflect on your own assumptions, while affirming the possibility of being seen on one’s own terms.

4 C-Prints , vinyl lettering 

50,8 x 61 cm (20 x 24 in)

Single-channel digital video

Duration 5min 11sec

Lack on Plywood 

38 x 144 x 42 cm ( 15 x 57 x 16 1/2 in)