Alberta Whittle was born in Bridgetown, Barbados to a Scottish father and a Barbadian mother in 1980 where she spent her childhood and early adolescence before immigrating to Birmingham, England, seeking a diagnosis for fibromyalgia. She subsequently studied at Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) and Glasgow School of Art. Representing Scotland at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022, Whittle interweaves themes of self-care, colonialism, and anti-blackness in her multidisciplinary art, spanning installation, film, and sculpture. Deeply informed by her dual heritage, she critically examines and aims to heal historical and ongoing societal injustices through collaborative and research-driven processes, which serve as a tool for social change and explore the resilience and narratives of the African diaspora.
Multidisciplinary artist, academic and curator, Alberta Whittle was born in 1980 in Bridgetown, Barbados to a Scottish father and a Barbadian mother, both artists. Her upbringing, immersed in art and politics and deeply informed by the colonial history of Barbados, fostered her awareness of dual heritage and social conscience. As a teenager, Whittle moved to Birmingham, England to seek a diagnosis for fibromyalgia. There, she was struck by the stark contrast in the public discourse around colonialism compared to her experiences in Barbados. Whittle subsequently received her BA in Fine Art from Glasgow School of Art (2002) and her MFA from Edinburgh College of Art (2011).
Whittle’s ‘thoughtful, inquisitive and determined’ work (Finley 2022, p. 21) spans a range of mediums, including installation, print, drawing, digital collage, film and video, sculpture, performance, and writing. Central to her practice are themes of self-care and compassion, which she explores alongside issues such as the historic and contemporary manifestations of anti-blackness, oppression, colonialism, migration, and neglected or deliberately obscured histories. She deconstructs and reinterprets notions of history and memory, aiming to build bridges of understanding and heal brutal past narratives. Her work is not only a form of artistic expression but also a tool for social change and community healing, focusing on issues affecting the African diaspora. Whittle frequently incorporates archival materials and found footage into her art - often a collaborative process with diverse participants, such as students, artists, curators, and communities. These collaborations not only assist in the physical creation of the work but are integral to its conceptual development.
Whittle’s solo exhibition How Flexible Can We Make the Mouth (Dundee Contemporary Arts, 2019) blended various mediums to reconstruct and nurture identities lost through trauma and to reflect on the movement and resilience of Black communities in the Caribbean and beyond. In her acclaimed exhibition deep dive (pause) uncoiling memory at the 2022 Venice Biennale, Whittle tackled the concept she describes as the 'luxury of amnesia' – a phenomenon of privileged collective forgetfulness that allows society to overlook past atrocities, leading to lethargy and inaction (Dazed interview). Through this display, Whittle aimed to demonstrate how self-compassion and collective care can be powerful tools in combating racism and colonialism. Susan Mansfield in the Scotsman described it as ‘an ambitious exploration of anti-blackness, from the slave trade through to the deaths of black men and women at the hands of police in the UK,’ noting that it 'runs a gamut of emotions: grief, anger, remembrance, affirmation, healing, and hope' (Mansfield 2022). The widely praised film installation Lagareh – The Last Born (2022) explored loss, rage, and abolition, intertwining intimacy, ritual, and rebellion. Shot in Scotland, London, Barbados, West Africa, and Venice, it linked geographies to address legacies of slavery and ongoing racism, highlighting the resilience of contemporary Black women through acts of resistance, unified by Whittle's storytelling. Four women in red featured, the colour representing the blood of enslaved women. Eddie Chambers commented: ‘Whittle’s nuanced, expansive work is […] a compelling manifestation of diasporic sensibilities, wherein the scattering, the dispersal, of people of African descent throughout the world (particularly by way of the Transatlantic Slave trade) is poetically, beautifully, compellingly, made flesh’ (Chambers, p.7). In the installation Entanglement is More than Blood (2022), Whittle explored connections between colonialism and climate crisis using rich symbolism, including water, gateways, hands, snakes, and shells. A tapestry featured the deity Mami Wata (Mother Water), a half-woman, half-snake figure central to the spiritual lives of enslaved Africans and their descendants, symbolising resistance against the oppression of belief systems. Its writhing limbs and entangled hands were set against a backdrop of snakes and framed with the phrase ‘what lies below’. Whittle described these elements as a ‘a way of thinking about the acquisitiveness of empire. The hands are made from a donation of whale ropes’ (Studio International 2022). Dipping Below a Waxing Moon, The Dance Claims Us For Release at the Holburne Museum (2023), explored themes of self-care and historical colonial ties, employing the limbo dance as a metaphor for the societal adjustments of the Caribbean diaspora and addressing Britain's colonial legacy. in late 2023 Whittle's solo show, Create Dangerously at Modern One, SNGMA, Edinburgh, reprised her Biennale work.
Since 2016, Whittle has actively contributed to Scottish arts as a Committee member of Glasgow's Transmission Gallery and, since 2017, as a Board Member at SCAN (Scottish Visual Arts Network). In 2020, Whittle received several awards, including the Turner Bursary, Frieze Artist Award, and Henry Moore Foundation Artist Award. She was also awarded the Margaret Tait Award (2018–19). Whittle has been PhD candidate at ECA since 2016 and is a Research Associate at The University of Johannesburg, South Africa, living between Scotland, Barbados and South Africa. In the UK public domain Alberta Whittle's work is represented in the Government Art Collection and National Galleries of Scotland, among others.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Alberta Whittle]
Publications related to [Alberta Whittle] in the Ben Uri Library