Past is prologue IV, 2022

In this episode, we explore Jess Atieno’s Past is Prologue IV, a haunting meditation on the ties between memory, history, and colonial legacies. Using faded, overlapping figures sourced from colonial photographs, Atieno evokes the fragility of remembrance and the blurred lines of historical truth.

Step closer to Past is Prologue IV and feel the weight of history pressing through its textured surface. Atieno’s serigraph on canvas is alive with layers—figures emerge and recede, caught in a tangled web of memory and movement. The monochrome palette, punctuated by muted yellow-green tones, feels both archival and urgent, as if fragments of time were suspended, asking to be reexamined.

Atieno’s process is deliberate and poetic. She draws from colonial photographic archives, deconstructing and reassembling these historical fragments to tell stories that challenge the original narratives. In this piece, the crowd of overlapping figures evokes a collective energy—a moment frozen in time yet teeming with life. Their forms blur, dissolve, and reappear, reflecting the impermanence of memory and the instability of history itself

The title Past is Prologue carries deep resonance. It speaks to the cyclical nature of time—how stories of the past ripple into the present, shaping who we are and how we see ourselves. In Atieno’s hands, these historical fragments are not just reassembled—they are reimagined. Through her layered serigraphy, she transforms the colonial gaze into a narrative of resilience, reclaiming agency for those whose stories were once silenced or erased.