ECU: European Currency Unfolds

‘In a world in which the oppressor defines right in terms of whiteness, humanity means an unqualified identification with blackness.’

J.H. Cane

Questions of European minority identities, issues of labour and the formation of the European Union were explored in the photographic series ECU: European Currency Unfolds created in 1992. The exhibition is concerned with the implications of black communities across Europe who are particularly under threat during the emergence of this European market. Black communities have been the fabric of society, brought in, encouraged or coaxed at various points in history to do the work white Europeans are loathed to do - as the cheaper workforce. The work attempts to identify how racism operates in this context and how it is differentiated in each country. 

The work of ten colour photographic images was commissioned for the exhibition ‘Shifting Borders’ for the European Festival 1992 were first shown in the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle, curated by Richard Hylton and went on to be included in a range of exhibitions and publications.