It Should Not Be Forgotten, Elsa James (2025) (EMPIRE LINES Live at Firstsite Colchester)

In this special episode, contemporary artist Elsa James joins EMPIRE LINES live, navigating how the slave ship marks and haunts Black lives in Britain today, in their interdisciplinary exhibition, It Should Not Be Forgotten (2025).

*Content Warning* This episode discusses rape and other forms of sexual violence.

Seeking to capture ‘the rupture, erasure, fragmentation and interconnectedness of Black Life in the diaspora’, Elsa James’ latest exhibition brings together performance works, neon sculptures, and collage. Elsa confronts Britain’s ‘national amnesia’ regarding its role in the transatlantic slave trade, bringing alternative perspectives on how we engage with the past. The artist crafts fictional narratives to contend with colonial archival records, and delves into the psychological effects of enslavement, both exposing historical atrocities and honouring the resistance of two enslaved women.

In this special episode, recorded live in Elsa’s Afro Dada studio at Firstsite in Colchester, we journey through the larger-than-life photographic installation located on the main floor of the gallery, which draws inspiration from American academic Christina Sharpe, and her idea that ‘the slave ship marks and haunts contemporary Black life in the diaspora’. Elsa shares influences including Tina M. Campt, Steve Martin, and David Olusoga, and details her collaborations, including with sound artist Trevor Mathison, who worked with a field recording from a sacred ceremony Elsa attended during an artist residency at Yinka Shonibare’s Guest Artists Space in Nigeria. Exploring ideas around Afropessimism, we talk about the role of critical hope in Elsa’s practice, touching on the work of Alberta Whittle and Maya Angelou.

We discuss Elsa’s long relationship with Essex, as the first artist to exhibit in Firstsite’s Living Room space as part of her Black Girl Essex residency, and solo exhibition, Othered in a region that has been historically Othered, at Focal Point Gallery in Southend-on-Sea in 2022. We explore recent group exhibitions including the Hayward Gallery Touring Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood, and transfeminisms at Mimosa House in London, developing her research into Mary Prince. Plus, Elsa describes the interconnectedness of her research interests, and Black British, Caribbean, and African heritages.

This episode was recorded live as part of the public programme for Elsa James: It Should Not Be Forgotten, an exhibition at Firstsite Colchester, in July 2025.

For more information, visit: instagram.com/p/DK-WsOPzeI3/

Hear the first episode with Elsa James, Living in the Wake of the Lust for Sugar (2023), recorded at the Museum of London Docklands: pod.link/1533637675/episode/NTFiZDQxMjUtZDI2Ni00ODE1LTk1YjktOTM4NzNhY2YzOTBi

For more about the Guest Artists Space (G.A.S.) Foundation, listen to artist Yinka Shonibare CBE RA on Decolonised Structures: Queen Victoria (2022) at the Serpentine in London: pod.link/1533637675/episode/NTE4MDVlYzItM2Q3NC00YzQ1LTgyNGItYTBlYjQ0Yjk3YmNj

And about fellow resident Leo Robinson, listen to this cutting with Dominic Paterson from The Trembling Museum at the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery in Glasgow, part of ⁠⁠SEEDLINGS: Diasporic Imaginaries (2025)⁠⁠, curated by Jelena Sofronijevic with Travelling Gallery in Scotland: pod.link/1533637675/episode/ZDA5OTgyY2EtMGE3MC00MGExLTkwOTUtODc3ODFkNTAyZmQ3

About Harold Offeh, listen to We Came Here (2022) at Van Gogh House in London: pod.link/1533637675/episode/ZmI5MmM2NWYtYzAyNy00MDkwLTk5MjMtNDhlZjcxZDExMTU3

Hear Ekow Eshun, curator of the touring exhibition, The Time is Always Now (2024) at the National Portrait Gallery in London and The Box in Plymouth: pod.link/1533637675/episode/df1d7edea120fdbbb20823a2acdb35cf

PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic.

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