In the words of the artist herself, 'This three panel work on paper, unglazed and mounted on distressed mirror foil for Art Basel Miami, reflects on a fragmented scene at the fish auction near my family home in Zanzibar, where fishermen customarily pull up to shore in their wooden ngalawas or fibreglass boats, laden with the bay´s catch. Bidding for fish is a quotidian part of life on the beach, not touristy, but on this day I watched as a white woman in a bikini wandered through, gazing at everything and everyone she saw, inserting herself into every conversation, every negotiation. The work is title "Mzungu" which is a term used for tourists in east Africa, which has come to mean white but translates from the kiswahili verb kuzunguka - to spin around senselessly or to wander aimlessly - and was originally coined by Bantu populations to try to describe the colonial explorers who first arrived on African soil. As the effects of global capitalism continue to cause harm by overtourism, over-fishing, reef devastation, social inequality and climate catastrophe, all while in the west headlines bombard us with immigration rage and fear, the work interrogates the beach as border and threshold, lingering the question: who gets the aimlessly wander?' (Phoebe Boswell, 2025)

In portraits of fishermen and other residents of a coastline that echoes the shores of East Africa, the ocean is a moody and powerful presence, less a backdrop to life than a steady companion. The ocean: eternal and mercurial, sheltering and threatening. A hint of its power is made evident in the shimmering, silvery reflective wall covering, mirroring the artwork back to the viewer. The lines between observer and subject, between the ocean and the city, between mirage and reality, blur.