Natasha Thembiso Ruwona

Umbilic is an essay film that expands on the current discourse of Hydrofeminism through a mapping of research into water, following the line of a Black Feminist Geographical framework. An excavation into Scotland’s Black history, this work began in 2020, which incidentally was the ‘Year of Scottish Coasts and Waters’. The work asks: what can we learn from water? Fluidity, impermanence, ease of movement, care, methods of listening, tenderness – these are some possible answers. We can liquify ourselves, and look to water to guide us, provide answers, or inspire questions. Umbilic is an offering; it is forever incomplete.

A meditation on the work of the trailblazing Scottish-Ghanaian artist Maud Sulter and an interrogation of the politics of artistic memory, demanding answers as to why Sulter's legacy and impact has been so well-hidden from the wider Scottish artistic landscape.