Interview with Ashley Twumasi by Bettina Pelz.
Published on 27 JUN 2025.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and tell us something about your artistic background?
I’m Ashley-Celestina Twumasi, a dancer, photographer, and visual media artist. My practice is currently expanding into areas like video, 3D, and experimental graphic work. I’m drawn to storytelling from perspectives that are often overlooked, and I enjoy shifting the lens—both literally and figuratively. Coming from a position that’s rarely centered in dominant image-making traditions, I see it as essential to offer alternative viewpoints and to question who gets to create the visual narratives we consume.
What themes or questions do you generally deal with in your artistic work?
A central theme in my work is transculturality—how cultural experiences overlap, merge, and sometimes conflict. I’m interested in the spaces between lived reality and external definition: how people experience identity, belonging, or exclusion in ways that often don’t match what is publicly or politically described. Especially in migration contexts, I explore how feelings of in-betweenness are shaped—not just by geography or heritage, but by perception, language, and visibility.
How did you get involved in the FOOTNOTES project and what attracted you to take part?
What drew me to FOOTNOTES was the idea of focusing on what often remains unnoticed or unspoken—those small details or invisible layers that shape our perception, but are rarely named. I was fascinated by the metaphor of a footnote: something that exists on the margins, often in smaller print, yet holds crucial information to fully understand the main text. It reminded me of how certain lived experiences—especially those of marginalized communities—can be highly visible on the surface, but still misunderstood without deeper context.
What is your contribution to FOOTNOTES?
My contribution is a visual media work that explores overlapping identities and cultural layers through fragmented imagery, text, and movement.
How did you approach the topic of “FOOTNOTES” and how does your work relate to it?
I approached the theme through the lens of transculturality—looking at how cultural identities are constantly shifting, blending, and recontextualized depending on where and how they’re viewed. Just like footnotes, these experiences often sit outside the “main narrative,” yet they are essential to understanding the full picture. My work tries to make those quiet layers visible—not in a loud or explanatory way, but through textures, gestures, and visual cues that ask the viewer to pause and look twice.
Photo Credits
Model: Mona Farivar
Photography: Ashley-C. Twumasi