Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum: All My Seven Faces

The first monograph on the decorative, Afrofuturist tableaux of Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum

This debut monograph on Botswana-born, Johannesburg- and Toronto-based artist Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum (born 1980) accompanies a mid-career survey at the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati (CAC). Presenting the largest display of works by the artist to date, the exhibition conjures a transformative space that evokes the impression of traveling through a tunnel. Visual nods to elements of Tswana home-adornment traditions, as well as sand embankments along the perimeter of the gallery where the walls meet the floor, heighten this sense of passage and location.

In addition to documenting these portions of the exhibition, the book also presents a new site-specific wall drawing created in response to Zaha Hadid’s architecture. The book includes an interview with Sunstrum by Elvira Dyangani Ose, Director of The Showroom, and valuable texts from Bessie Head, who, though born in South Africa, is considered one of Botswana’s most influential writers, and Raphaela Platow, Director at the CAC.