“1781 was the year greatness finally stood up to claim what rightfully belonged to her—freedom.”

“1781 was the year greatness finally stood up to claim what rightfully belonged to her—freedom.”

“1781 was the year greatness finally stood up to claim what rightfully belonged to her—freedom.”

The story of Elizabeth Freeman is one that has always inspired artist Okolo Oliver.

Against many forms of oppression, Freeman, never relented, stood firm, knowing and believing that a Black person has the right to be free from oppression of any sort, simply on the fundamental reason of being human.

As a Black person, an African, Oliver, like Elizabeth Freeman, has faced many challenges in life….

“While reading the story of Elizabeth, I felt like she was speaking to me, asking me to bring her story forward. And during this critical time when Black people around the world are embracing our brothers and sisters in the U.S., I’ve been more aware of my own oppression through colonialism and the horrible loss Africa has endured from the Middle Passage and enslavement of the Diaspora.”

Deploying the practice of critical fabulation to create this most recent body of work, the artist has imagined the early life narrative of Freeman’s innermost most thoughts, when she was a young woman, perhaps the current age of the artist. Oliver seeks to visually imagine Freeman’s story as if she was living in the 21st century, and the18th century—simultaneously.

The conceptual, creative, and spiritual practice of radical imaginative “time travel” spurred many questions that Okolo seeks to unpack within the development of this series.

“I asked myself how would she had have fought for her freedom in this contemporary moment, and compared it to how she fought for her freedom in the late 1700s. Truly she shows great perseverance which I admire greatly, and also she shows determination and heart”

In this new series, Oliver has accessed a deeper level of the human condition by taking on the lived intersectional experiences of a woman ancestor.

“By re-imagining her life, I learned that great things can happen to all of us, if only we can believe in ourselves!”

The art of Okolo Oliver, Bett (1781), 2020. Charcoal and acrylic on paper. 40×50 inches. Courtesy the artist and Legacy Brothers LLC @legacybros