Sindi-Leigh McBride
Sindi-Leigh McBride is a researcher and writer from Johannesburg, and PhD Candidate in African Studies at the University of Basel where her doctoral research investigates the politics and poetics of climate change in South Africa and Nigeria. She holds MA degrees in International Relations (University of the Witwatersrand, 2011) and Political Communication (University of Cape Town, 2015) and is employed at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) where she investigates structural barriers to youth livelihoods in Africa. Her arts criticism and short stories have appeared in Africa’s a Country, Artthrob, The Johannesburg Book Review, The Mail & Guardian and other outlets. Current research interests include: climate change in Africa, youth and work, African contemporary art and African literature.
Adjo Kisser
Adjo Kisser (b. 1992) is an artist whose interest in narratives, and the archival form has resulted in recent investigations into sound, collectivity and the cultural initiatives of liberation movements across the continent of Africa. However, Accra, as one of the city-studios where national infrastructure was used in the broadcasting of anti-colonial sentiments and ideas, becomes an important springboard in her research.
Until 2019, the narratives that formed the basis of her work were those garnered from eavesdropping on conversations in public places in Accra and Kumasi. These narratives had inspired the humorous and satirical tone of her cartoonish drawings which featured blue-skinned characters with painfully frozen grins. Her drawings later took a more collaborative turn through The Billboard Series, instigating her interest in community-based artistic projects. She continues to interrogate what the changing notions of “community” today can mean for the production and experience of art through an embrace of processes that encourages incidental discoveries and serendipitous moments.
Kisser is currently pursuing a PhD in Painting and Sculpture at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, where she lectures and remains an active member of blaxTARLINES KUMASI – an experimental incubator for contemporary art. She has exhibited in Ghana and Germany, the most recent being UmStand der Dinge: A State of Affairs in HFBK, Hamburg.
She currently lives and works in Kumasi and Accra, Ghana.
Meghna Singh
Meghna Singh is a visual artist and a researcher with a PhD in visual anthropology from the University of Cape Town. Working with mediums of video installation and XR (extended reality), blurring boundaries between documentary and fic/on, she creates immersive environments highlighting issues of ‘humanism’. Her focus is on the theme of critical mobilities, migration and oceanic crossings. She recently completed a post-doctorate on a project titled ECOHES European Colonial Heritage Modalities in Entangled Ci/es where she focused on the work of arts and activists in South Africa. She is a National Geographic Fellow an associate fellow at the African Centre for migration and Society, Witwatersrand University, Johannesburg. Meghna has shown work at the International Venice Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, BFI London Film Festival. She has been awarded numerous grants by organisations such as the Welcome Trust U.K, Oriental Foundation Lisbon, Pro- Helve/ca Johannesburg, African Centre for Ci/es, University of Cape Town and the British Council. Meghna has exhibited widely around the world, published essays, presented papers and given talks.