Danielle Brathwaite Shirley

Artist Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley uses the forms and imagery of video games to create works that consider "what archives have left out and how we can archive now.”

“I turn to archiving because I think archives have really failed Black trans people”, she says.

Historical collections such as the Portico’s often contain no first-hand representation of the experiences of Black trans people. This erasure, Danielle says, extends to contemporary gaming, where she has found “no Black trans representation that centred on our stories.”

Her online work, Resurrection Lands, virtually resurrects unarchived Black trans ancestors and preserves them for the future. Players determine how the game unfolds by taking notice of their own identity.

Click the image below to enter the game.

Images from Resurrection Land by Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley

See more of Danielle’s work here: www.daniellebrathwaiteshirley.com


 

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Portico Library users have begun to uncover the inequities, absences, and hidden histories in our archive and collection, but we’ve only just scratched the surface. If you would like to start your own research project in the library, please fill in our enquiry form here.

 

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