Bristol artist Asmaa Jama takes over billboards across city

Billboards across a city have been taken over by an artist.

Asmaa Jama was commissioned to create the art in Bristol as part of BUILDHOLLYWOOD's national project All About Love.

Danish artist Jama said their pieces were a "love letter" for communities that are "always discarded".

Billboards have also been taken over in Manchester, Glasgow, Brighton and Birmingham by artists that are queer, female, non-binary or people of colour.

Jama's work is made up of stills from their film "Except this time nothing returns from the ashes" (2022).

The national project was inspired by bell hooks' novel, All About Love.

Still from Jama's film, featuring five people. One is staring directly at the camera whilst the caption reads "We are a contaimination the earth remembers"
Jama's work can be seen on billboards across Bristol

Jama's work is made up of photographic stills and fragments of poetic text from the film.

They said: "This work, is in fact, for the communities that are always discarded. The people and places, considered ruins and past saving.

"I think love is a contaminating force that helps us resist our erasures and our annihilation.

"In Bristol, the places I love are the places that people have resisted their erasures, like St. Paul's, Easton and Barton Hill. Where the communities gather, and salvage themselves."

A still from "Except this time nothing returns from the ashes", showing two characters in neon lighting looking into the camera. The caption reads "a ruin is a thing still salvageable"
The billboards build on quotes from the film "Except this time nothing returns from the ashes"

Jama's work can be viewed at 20 prominent sites across Bristol, including Temple Gate, West Street, Old Market Roundabout and Kingsland Road.

The project began on Wednesday at 13:00 BST and be on display until Sunday.


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