Photographer, media artist, scholar and activist, Roshini Kempadoo was born to Guyanese parents in Sussex, England in 1959. She moved to the Caribbean as a child, living in Jamaica and Guyana and spending time in Barbados and Trinidad. In the 1980s she was instrumental in setting up the Association of Black Photographers (now Autograph ABP), and worked as a photographer for the women's photography agency Format (1983-2003), documenting Black communities, women's groups and trade union events. Her creative practice continues to explore the relationship between British and Caribbean culture (Guyana and Trinidad in particular) and the way in which this is creatively expressed from one generation to the next.
Photographer, media artist, scholar and activist, Roshini Kempadoo was born to Guyanese immigrant parents in Crawley, Sussex, England in 1959. She and her family subsequently moved between the UK and the Caribbean, as a result of which Kempadoo lived in Jamaica and Guyana, as well as spending time in Barbados and Trinidad between the ages of 11 and 18. She refers to her parents as having been 'part of the 'Windrush Generation', elaborating that, ‘My father (Peter Kempadoo) arrived in London in the 1950s' (Mohabir 2010, p. 7). Returning to the UK she completed a BA in Visual Communications with a specialism in Photography at Wolverhampton University (1981-84) before studying for an MA in Photographic Studies at the University of Derby (1988-89). In 2008 she was awarded a PhD from Goldsmiths College, University of London (2002-2008).
As a photographer and multimedia artist Kempadoo makes work that interprets and re-imagines contemporary and historical experiences of the particular and the everyday as women’s visual narratives. Her practice is influenced by a long career of documenting Caribbean communities and individuals, addressing rights issues and inequalities. Indeed, as a second generation Caribbean migrant and member of the Caribbean diaspora, she is particularly interested in exploring the relationship between British and Caribbean culture (Guyana and Trinidad in particular) and the way in which this is creatively expressed from one generation to the next. Through the use of fictional writings, photographs, recordings, music, interactivity, and networked environments, as well as autobiographical and situated perspectives, she seeks to represent issues that are less visible, underrepresented or unsaid. More specifically, she uses digital media: sound, animation, photography, screen-based interactive art and interactive objects to create characters and artworks that explore colonial and postcolonial Britain and the Caribbean.
Kempadoo’s seminal digital montage series ECU: European Currency Unfolds (1992) was first exhibited as part of the exhibitionShifting Borders at the Laing Gallery, Newcastle in 1992 (which also toured to the Greenwich Citizens Art Gallery). In 2004 a retrospective exhibition, Roshini Kempadoo: Works 1990 – 2004, curated by Sunil Gupta, was held at Russell-Cotes Gallery, Bournemouth, and the Pitzhanger Gallery and Manor, Ealing, London (2004-06). Her Virtual Exiles internet site was exhibited with the Digital Media Lab at Wolverhampton Art Gallery between 2004 and 2005 and, in 2008, a solo exhibition of her work, including Amendments, was held at MERL, University of East London. More recent shows include: Born in 1987: The Animated GIF at The Photographer’s Gallery (2012) and Ghosts: Keith Piper/Roshini Kempadoo at Central Saint Martin’s Lethaby Gallery (2015). Her work was also included in Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Herbert Art Gallery (2020) and in Life Between Islands: Caribbean-British Art 1950s-Now at Tate Britain (2021).
In addition to her work as photographer and media artist, Kempadoo is a cultural activist and advocate. She was instrumental in establishing the Association of Black Photographers (now Autograph ABP) in the late 1980s, and also worked as a photographer for Format Picture Agency (1983–2003), the UK’s only women’s agency, documenting Black communities, women's groups and trade union events. In addition, she contributed to the development of Ten.8 International Photographic Magazine (1986–1990) both as a manager and editorial board member. She has been a national arts advisor, photography officer, and consultant for the Arts Council (1990–2000) where she helped develop national policy in the areas of photography, visual arts, cultural diversity and equality. In 2012–13, she became the first animateur for Iniva’s Stuart Hall Library which involved developing programmes and initiatives to engage artists and researchers, including collaborative projects using other collections and curators’ responses, and more recently was instrumental within public debate about the visual arts, internationalism and infrastructure convened by supporters of Iniva (2014-2015). As a scholar, Kempadoo publishes articles and chapters that range from critical visual culture studies to ways creative practice constitutes academic research. She also reviews for journals and book publishers including Duke University Press, the Journal of Media Practice and the Journal of Refugee Studies. Between 2010 and 2018 she was a member of the AHRC Peer Review College and is a reviewer and training committee member of the Techne AHRC Doctoral Training Partnership consortia (2018 – to date). Her monograph Creole in the Archive: Imagery, Presence and the Location of the Caribbean Figure, published in 2016 by Rowman & Littlefield, was launched at the Stuart Hall Library, Iniva in 2017. In 2018, she collaborated with Iniva on the Creating Interference Network Symposium. She is Professor of Photography and Visual Culture at Westminster University. Roshini Kempadoo lives and works in London, England. Her work is held in UK public collections including Autograph ABP, National Portrait Gallery and the Science Museum Group, among others.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Roshini Kempadoo]
Publications related to [Roshini Kempadoo] in the Ben Uri Library