All Purpose Smile, 2017
oil, ink and Xerox transfer on canvas
145 x 175 cm
The title of this work, ‘All Purpose Smile’, by Esiri Erheriene-Essi (1982, United Kingdom) is as enigmatic as the facial expressions of the figures portrayed in it. Erheriene-Essi is interested in images, objects and documents that allow her to examine individual and shared memories. Photographs featuring people who migrated to the West from Africa, Haiti and The Caribbean in the 60s, 70s and 80s in search of a better life, serve as source material for her paintings. A photograph of a Nigerian-British family taken in East London in the 70s formed the basis for ‘All Purpose Smile’. By adding the photograph, on top of the TV, of her own mother and uncles who migrated from Nigeria to London in the 70s and newspaper clippings from the same period, Erheriene-Essi weaves a complex web of historical narratives and hidden memories.