Relic Traveller: Phase 3

Multi Disciplinary Project, 2019 - 21

Relic Traveller: Phase 3, is the continuation of a multi-disciplinary project, which manifests in performance, audio, moving image and prose. Centred within themes related to Sanko-time, Relic Traveller takes place across various landscapes and locations; the project continues to build upon a postcolonial perspective informed by technology, agency and the body, and narratives of migration.

This speculative project continues to consider the social and political climate of recent times; the rise of nationalism within the global West and tensions surrounding moments such as the United Kingdom’s leave ‘Brexit’ vote in 2016. Meanwhile, the African Union’s passport programme (also established in 2016) moves towards the opening of boarders across a unified African continent. The Relic Traveller series aims to imagine a future in which the global West devolves to a point of decline. In this future the African Union ascends into a prosperous, and harmonious collective, free of Western interference and reliance, to take full responsibility in shaping the future of the planet.

At this unspecified point in time, the African Union create the ‘Relic Travellers’ Alliance’, a programme that equips Relic Travellers with space-travelling technology for the sole purpose of venturing outside of the African Union to retrieve testimonies left by ancestors oppressed because of colonisation, capitalism, and globalisation. These uncovered ‘relics’ are collected and used as a basis for the African Union to responsibly govern the future, informed by a grass roots perspective.

Reliquary 2 was a response to COVID-19 and the subsequent lockdown. The film is formed of animated sequences and drone footage from Achiampong’s personal archives, featuring an original score composed and performed by the artist.

Art on the Underground presented an ambitious public commission which re-imagined London Underground’s iconic roundel, for Westminster Underground station from November 2019 – February 2020.

When Aunty Speaks, You Listen was made during Summer 2020, against the backdrop of worldwide Black Lives Matter uprisings. Drawing attention to the struggle for rights and racial justice that has spanned hundreds of years, often without recognition, this work is centred around an historic recording of Ghanaian author and academic Ama Ata Aidoo.

Sanko-time is a site-specific piece composed to accompany the 20-minute round-trip on the Emirates Air Line cable car from Greenwich Peninsula to the Royal Docks, reflecting on the historical context of the river Thames during the journey. The work is hosted online, enabling it to be enjoyed from anywhere in the world.

Photo by GG Archard

Relic Traveller: Phase 3, produced with help from John Hansard Gallery, De La Warr Pavilion, The Line and Art on The Underground, Transport For London