Womxn In Animation

In celebration of Maybelle Peters Exhibition, Attention, Absorption, this panel discussion event brought together Black women and non-binary artists and animators: Jessica Ashman, Phoebe Boswell, Mothy Muyobo, and Maybelle Peters. Chaired by exhibition curator, Jade Foster, the panel focusing in on the crossovers between animation and the visual arts sector.

Peters’ work has been shown predominantly within animation and film contexts until the exhibition The Place Is Here at Nottingham Contemporary and South London Gallery in 2017. With the limited systemic knowledge of Black female and non-binary animators within Britain, Attention, Absorption is a recognition of Peters’ work and a shift in her practice—from animation to installation—contextualising and providing new insights into her work.

Womxn in Animation - The Panelists

Jessica Ashman is an award-winning artist who works in animation moving image, music performance (under the name Spirit Sigh), and arts education. She is a Royal College of Art graduate whose work has been supported by Animate Projects, Jerwood Visual Arts, Arts Council England, Supernormal Festival, Flatpack Festival, Focal Point Gallery, and New Art Exchange.

Jessica creates experimental film narratives and soundscapes that explore the connections between identity, race and gender, inspired by Black speculative fiction and Black radical feminist theory.

Phoebe Boswell is an interdisciplinary artist based in London. Her work, which has been exhibited extensively both in the UK and abroad, expands drawing with digital technologies to explore modalities of freedom, care, contested histories, and imagined futures through a black feminist and multifaceted diasporic lens.

Mothy Muyobo: I am a Black, non-binary, multi-disciplinary artist from Milton Keynes, based in London. I feel the need to fully express what I could not before, being a queer, from a small town with a mostly white population. Animation allows me to create moving imagery to not only reflect my contemporary outlook on life but also reflect my previous lives. My art is bold for I could not be before. My art is awkward as that is how I am. And whilst I find myself, my art style will continuously and purposely reflect those changes.

Maybelle Peters is a London-based artist and filmmaker working in film and CGI. Her practice focuses on storytelling using documentaries, historical events, literature, and oral narratives. She gained her bachelor’s degree in Animation at Farnham where she made her first commissioned film for BBC2. Her Channel 4 commissioned film, Mama Lou, has been shown extensively at animation festivals including Annecy, Ottawa, and the Edinburgh Film Festival as well as broadcast television. She is the recipient of the inaugural Womxn of Colour art award. Maybelle is a practice-based PhD student at UCA Farnham researching black bodies as data using motion capture technology.