Ascension

This lenticular photograph honours the memory of Sophia Burthen (Pooley). Sophia was born enslaved in Fishkill, New York around 1775. When she was 7 years old she and her sister were stolen from her family, ferried across the Hudson River in the dark hold of a boat then sold in Upper Canada. For decades she laboured in the Ancaster, Dundas, Hamilton area then took her freedom and lived in her elder years in the Queen’s Bush, a Black community in Peel county. The two hands in the photo represent Sophia at the moment her childhood was stolen, then as an elder recounting her journey. The hands appear and disappear, meeting to touch, remembering the tale of her survival and mourning the loss of her sister and family who disappear from the public records and from her testimony. 

The artists thank Andrew Hunter, author of It Was Dark There All the Time, a reflection on Sophia's Life for inspiring the creation of the artwork for the Two Stacks exhibition

Lenticular Photograph 
• 48” x 42”, 2023