On Our Doorsteps: We Are Equal by Zakiya Mackenzie
Transcript
The artwork that you can see here presents a text by writer Zakiya Mackenzie. It is one of 6 large artworks presented on 3meter x 1 and a half meter billboards around the Sweet Briar Marshes Nature Reserve in Norwich as part of a nationwide project called On Our Doorsteps.
Filling the billboard with large, dark-green letters, Zakiya’s writing reads:
We are equal here
Through the layers of deep time
Marked in the land
We belong here
Behind Zakiya’s text we see a black & white photographic background. We can see two huge, ancient, twisted oak trees. The rough texture of the bark is clear to see on the trunks and gnarled branches, and we can see that the tree is in full leaf. On the ground lay some rotting branches, which are becoming overgrown with brambles. To the sides of the image, smaller trees come into view. The whole frame is filled with foliage. The image is a black and white photograph, but in the bottom right corner of the image we see a narrow, horizontal rectangle made up of different colours. To the right we see dark shades of brown and green in wide bands. Moving to the left we see bands of lighter green and at the left-hand end of the rectangle, we see brighter yellows and a narrow band of pale blue. Maybe these are the colours we would have seen in we were there when the photograph was taken. Perhaps we can imagine them back into the black and white image.
This was one of Zakiya Makenzie’s texts for On Our Doorsteps. She created two other artworks which can also be seen around Sweet Briar Marshes. In March Zakiya Mackenzie spent three afternoons walk with a group of people from local communities in Norwich and across Norfolk. They included members of the Norfolk Queer Birders Group, members of the Friends of Train Wood, volunteers who have worked with the Norfolk Wildlife Trust and others who know and love Sweet Briar Marshes. They walked, talked and wrote together, sharing their reflections on the landscape and what it means to feel connected to such a place. You can find more of the writing that came out of these sessions through the project page on the Norfolk & Norwich Festival’s website.
The project was developed and produced by We Live Here, in collaboration with the Norfolk & Norwich Festival and the Norfolk Wildlife Trust. It is funded by Arts Council England and the Finnish Institute.