Ancestral Stories by Patrick Dougher
American multimedia artist, Patrick Dougher, uses traditional African masks to create different striking series about Black culture, history, and life.
In one series called The Botanica Ancestor, Patrick uses Acrylic and collage on paper to transpose a traditional African man, depicted with his native mask, into the midst of a concrete urban jungle. Here, he fights to thrive, financially and culturally, while keeping his ancestry alive.
In The Diaspora Christian, he creates a portrait of a man in a Western suit, acclimatised into the culture, complete with an immersion into Christianity as showcased by a backdrop of Bible passages. He wears his ancestral mask proudly still. But…the mask is starting to slip.
The artist’s signature golden halo is a beautiful thread tying all his portraits together.
One of Patrick’s most impactful series is Trans-Atlantic. He says it best himself - “This series addresses the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade in which 15 million Africans were brutally stolen and transported to the “New World” (4 million died in transport) to be used as slave labor on Tobacco, Coffee, Sugar, Cotton & Cocoa plantations. This series speaks to the use of the Bible as a tool for subjugation and justification for this Holocaust.”
Here, his signature golden halo is replaced by the cash crops farmed using slave labor.
Patrick goes a little lighter in All Art African Art by using more colour than usual. But his collages and acrylic still send a gritty, poignant message about an African ancestry that permeates everything regardless of modernity and race!
