Being Mammy (Mammy's Looks)

In 2004 Picture This commissioned 'Being Mammy (Mammy's Looks)' as part of Ghosting, a long term initiative exploring themes of archive, memory, and ethnography. Being Mammy is the culmination of a research project that explored the world of the 'Mammy' caricature. Offeh examined the life and career of actress Hattie McDaniel, who famously played and won an Oscar for her role as 'Mammy' in Gone With The Wind. Offeh uses performance video works, along with a series of objects, including replica pre-cinema artefacts, posters, and other ephemera, to evoke the tragedy of the typecast actor doomed to recreate and replay the same role.