The project began with Progress (1968) — a multidisciplinary exploration of one of the defining years of the twentieth century — and developed through Progress 2020, which turned the enquiry towards contemporary experiences of identity, citizenship and belonging in cities across Europe, Africa and the Caribbean.

Across both phases, Progress uses film, archive, testimony, music, poetry, photography, textiles, dance and movement as ways of interpreting history.

It deliberately moves between the local and international.

London, Paris, Bissau, Biafra, Rio de Janeiro and Kingston informed the first phase.

Bremen, Bologna, Maputo and Kingston provided settings for the second.

The connecting question is deceptively simple:

What do we mean by progress — and who gets to define it?

Progress (1968)

1968 occupies an almost mythical position within modern political history.

Student protests in Paris, the civil rights movement in the United States, opposition to the Vietnam War and a wider generational challenge to political authority have become familiar parts of its historical narrative. But those events represent only part of the story.

As the fiftieth anniversary of 1968 approached, I became interested in what the year looked like from places and communities less frequently placed at the centre of that history. What did 1968 mean in Africa? What did it mean in the Caribbean? What was happening in countries experiencing the aftermath of colonialism, struggles for independence, military dictatorship and civil conflict? And how were those experiences subsequently remembered by people who became part of the African diaspora?

Progress (1968) emerged from those questions.

Six places, different histories

The project considered six geographical perspectives:

London
Paris
Guinea-Bissau
Biafra
Rio de Janeiro
Kingston

Rather than attempting to produce a conventional historical documentary, the project used different creative forms to allow these experiences to sit alongside one another.

Archive and testimony meet poetry.

Music meets political history.

Dance and movement interpret experiences that cannot always be adequately expressed through written narrative.

The film is intentionally layered rather than linear.

This approach was influenced by the idea of the mixtape — different voices, sounds and fragments placed into sequence so that new relationships emerge between them.

The intention was not to provide a single authoritative account of 1968.

It was to challenge the idea that there ever could be one.

Who owns history?

A central concern of Progress is the politics of the archive.

Historical events are never simply remembered. They are selected, organised, narrated and interpreted. And lived. Certain events become central to the historical record while others remain within families, communities and individual memories. Progress asks: Who owns the narrative?

Whose experiences become part of official history? Whose remain largely unseen? And how might art allow those histories to be encountered differently?

Within Progress (1968), an account of surviving the Biafran War can sit alongside poetry, archive footage, music and movement.

These different forms are not illustrations of history. They are themselves ways of carrying history.

Windrush Square

That principle also shaped how the work was first presented.

In October 2019, Progress (1968) was projected outdoors in Windrush Square, Brixton.

The choice of location mattered.

Rather than placing the work immediately within a gallery or cinema, it was presented within a public space carrying its own powerful associations with migration, Black British identity, political struggle and community life.

People could intentionally attend. Others could encounter it simply by passing through the square.

The city became part of the installation.

This relationship between art, public space and audience remains central to the wider Progress project.

Film, sound and movement

Progress (1968) developed as an immersive visual and sonic work rather than simply a film to be watched in a conventional cinema.

Spoken-word poetry in Krio connects different geographical narratives. An original soundtrack helps move the viewer between moments of reflection, tension and political upheaval.

Movement provides another language.

Working with Brazilian dancer and choreographer Adriano Oliveira, a public workshop explored oppression, restriction and life under Brazil's military dictatorship through choreography and the body. The intention was to allow audiences not simply to observe history, but to encounter aspects of it physically and emotionally.

An international journey

Since its first public installation, Progress (1968) has travelled into different artistic and academic contexts. The work was selected as a finalist for the Aesthetica Art Prize 2023, where it was exhibited at York Art Gallery. It received recognition within the Fine Arts Film category at Black International Cinema Berlin 2023. It was subsequently presented in Dakar, including the OFF programme of the Dakar Biennale in 2024. The work has also entered academic discussion through presentations and engagement with students at Goldsmiths, University of London and the University of Westminster.

These different contexts have allowed Progress to operate simultaneously as film, artwork, archive, educational resource and starting point for discussion.