4K Video, 2023
A Letter (Side B) looks at the affective impact of history, immigration and geographical separation on two brothers living in Britain and Ghana. The film collapses time, exploring how the past interrupts and impacts in the present and incorporates recent footage filmed by Achiampong in Ghana as well as archival footage from The Museum of African Art: The Veda and Dr Zdravko Pečar Collection in Belgrade, Serbia.
Speaking from a deeply personal perspective, the film additionally utilises older technologies from a 'hacked' Game Boy Camera, which Achiampong modified to enable the capture of moving images via HDMI. Through the marriage of storytelling and the use of retro technology, the exploration of time travel and the concept of ‘Sanko-time’ becomes possible. Coined by Larry in 2017, the term relates to the Ghanaian Adinkra symbol and indigenous Akan term ‘Sankofa’, meaning to ‘go back and retrieve’.
Through the nuanced uses of current and older technologies, visuals, sound and recollections of lived experiences and conversations, the film also points to the wider social and political consequences of institutional structures and behaviours that threaten the lives of migrants and refugee families.
A Letter (Side B) was commissioned by The Mosaic Rooms and forms part of an ongoing project titled GH0ST_DATA_, a continuing series of films by the artist delving into the relationship between depression, black masculinity, and digital anxiety.
A Letter (Side B) produced with help from Heart of Glass, The Mosaic Rooms and Stanley Picker Gallery