Aisha Seriki b. 1998

Seriki’s installations combine staged black-and-white portraiture with small sculptural objects that embed photographic images. The portraits evoke an imaginary, dreamlike atmosphere that depicts a central female character interacting with symbolic props in an undefined, suspended space. The figure interacts with her shadow, reflection, and mirroring image, alluding to the multiple layers of the physical body and the spiritual self. The sculptures, by contrast, emphasize the tactile process of photography as objects and active elements of an archive. Taking the form of hair combs cast in bronze, they incorporate photo polymer gravure printing and cyanotype prints, conjuring grainy images of time passed. In other works, Seriki combines metal fabrication and linear structures with photographs to create assemblages that suggest relics of spiritual devotion.

Seriki’s interest stems from research into nineteenth-century photographic practices, at the medium’s inception, known as “spirit photography”. In the mid-1800s, photography’s promise of scientific truth raised questions about how the visible might relate to the unseen dimensions of lived experience. The field of “spirit photography” emerged as an attempt to document the visibly unknown — ghosts, auras, and the spiritual world among the living. While some photographers staged theatrical illusions, others pursued earnest experiments that tested the limits of the camera’s vision. Many proponents of spirit photography sought to connect with people they have lost, with the optimistic belief that photography may be able to connect us with the spirit world. 

Seriki places this Western history of spirit photography in dialogue with West African paradigms of representation, positioning the Yoruba concept of Orí Inú—the inner head that serves as spiritual consciousness and guide—alongside photography’s early metaphysical aspirations. Rather than insisting on a binary between Western and non-Western belief systems, Seriki reveals shared epistemological concerns: parallel efforts to make sense of the invisible, the ancestral, and connect with the deceased. In doing so, she reclaims narratives that too often frame early photography in Africa solely through exploitation, instead emphasizing a broader lineage of spiritual inquiry. 

For Seriki, image-making becomes ritual rather than documentation. Her portraits employ techniques of mirroring, doubling, and sacred forms such as calabashes and cowrie shells, suggesting gestures of healing, embodiment, and reconnection with ancient knowledge. The sculptures, intimate and devotional, carry a sacred presence. Rather than separating mind, body, and spirit, Seriki presents identity as relational and spiritually grounded.