Bergen Centre for Electronic Arts

Amber Ablett presented the sound installation My Fathers Left at Visningsrommet USF as part of Borealis – a festival for experimental music.

The work was co-commissioned by BEK and Borealis, and Amber prepared exhibition material in work residencies at BEK.

My Fathers Left begins with the artist’s own exploration into how the narratives that British, Norwegian and Western society has taught us about Black fatherhood shaped and warped the way she saw her relationship with her own father, and the ways in which colourism and internalised racism seep in. Installed in the gallery space USF Visningsrommet, the work sat within a wooden listening structure based on wooden stands used to hold up boats when they are brought onto dry land, connecting these personal stories, back to the stories of fathers that have travelled across seas.

The work is part of New Perspectives for Action, a project by Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by The European Union.

Photos: Thor Brødreskift, Borealis