CONTINUUM COLLECTION

The Continuum Collection was born from a close reading of ancient trade documents that vividly describe the “luxurious goods and materials” that came through the ancient Eritrean trading port of Adulis. From the coast African trade connected across the Red Sea to China’s silk road and beyond, in a robust trade of the finest pearls, sapphires, jade, ivory, rubies, coral and faience. The materials language and motifs featured in this jewelry collection both challenge and corrects the corrupted western historical archive, proving Africans were innovators and not passive recipients of foreign influence. 

Located within each piece are symbols loaded with ideas that I wanted to re-enforce as current sites of indigenous reverence. The pieces are not relics of the past, but ones that are rooted in the African pantheon and living on a continuum.

“As a Black artist, an Eritrean, it’s my duty to correct, contribute to and protect the archive of my people., Even today we are not included or are misnamed culturally and geographically on maps and in authoritative institutions. My work re-inforces the body as a site of authority and knowledge transmission. There’s so much memory encoded within that’s unbeknownst to us and longing to be activated - My art when adorned is a conduit for this, for Re-jecting misinformation, then Re-claiming, and finally Re-embodying  and Re-membering who we are as practice.”