FORGOTTEN LAND AND ITS FINDINGS (FUTILITY), 2024

Shanoya Allwood is a multidisciplinary artist who primarily works with film and drawing. During her childhood in Jamaica, she was deeply immersed in creative writing, still life, and portraiture, drawing inspiration from the rich cultural tapestry around her. She immigrated to Maryland at eight years old and cultivated her passion for drawing and film. In 2023, she showcased her collection Eye Like Mine (Inherited Longing) as a part of Black History Month at Pratt Institute. She continues to investigate her mediums, inspired by her cultural heritage and the dynamic community of artists surrounding her. “My life was spent winding between two distinctive places that I was intrinsically tied to and trying to understand how I made sense within that. I’ve reached an understanding that my work can be an act of remembrance towards my cultural heritage. This manifests in my work through visual mementos of things from my childhood in Jamaica. My creative process often requires me vividly digging through what I remember, and then taking whatever stands out to me and including it in my work. It’s often these very small subtle things—certain flowers, fabrics, textures, sounds. Alone, these things don’t mean much to most people, but they perform in my work as threads to a larger tapestry of experience.”