Stories of the Unseen – Tayo Adekunle

Stories of the Unseen is a presentation of work from photographer and visual artist, Tayo Adekunle by Edinburgh Printmakers. Adekunle’s practice explores issues surrounding race, gender and sexuality as well as racial and colonial history, predominantly through portraiture and self-portraiture. Works from Reclamation of the Exposition (2020) explore the fetishization of black women’s bodies, through the human displays in ethnographic expositions. In a new body of work, Adekunle explores the power that stories hold in the preservation of history, tradition and culture. Referencing Èṣù, an Orisha from Yoruba Spiritual Tradition in a conversation about misrepresentation. 

Tayo Adekunle (b. 1997) is a Nigerian-British visual artist from West Yorkshire, based in London. Using predominantly portraiture and self-portraiture, her work explores issues surrounding race, gender and sexuality. In an interrogation of racial and colonial history, her work is centered around reworking tropes and narratives about black people and black culture. Tayo received her BA(Hons) in Photography at Edinburgh College of Art in 2020. Since then she has been an artist in residence at institutions around the UK including the Southbank Center in London, Leeds Playhouse in Leeds, Hospitalfield in Arbroath, Dundee and Edinburgh Printmakers in Edinburgh.  

Tayo Adekunle’s residency and exhibition are supported by the British Council. We would also like to thank Hahnemühle for supporting the production of Tayo Adekunle’s work.