Project Space Resident

Cecile Emeke

May 26 – June 23, 2026

Artist’s Statement

My latest film collage weaves found and archival footage into a meditation on the remedy to oppression: public humiliation. Through juxtaposing religious iconography with fragments of current affairs and popular culture, the work speaks to a decolonial reality already foretold in revelation. Here, Babylon is no longer confined to a place but emerges as a frequency, something closer to a viral infection, permeating culture and consciousness alike. This contagion cannot be removed by quiet reform or private reckoning; it demands a collective and visible humiliation before renewal can occur. The collage structure itself mirrors this process, exposing fractures, dissonances, and contradictions that destabilize oppressive narratives. Yet, as with all enduring stories, the trajectory bends toward restoration: humiliation gives way to transformation, decay to regeneration, and an old order collapses so that new life may begin.

Bio

Cecile Emeke is a Jamaican-English filmmaker, writer, and artist from London, known for her dexterity across genre and mediums. Through broadcast television, independent film, and visual art, her creative practice explores themes of time, cosmology, and cultural production through the lens of Black British, Caribbean, and Black diasporic culture, in liminal spaces and intimate settings. Her work has been exhibited and screened globally, from the Brooklyn Museum to the National Gallery of Jamaica. Cecile currently serves on the board of trustees at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre in London.

VSW Project Space Residencies are supported by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the New York State Legislature, Monroe County, and Joy of Giving Something.