Drawing on her Jamaican-British-German biography, Sonia E. Barrett places listening and community at the core of her artistic practice. Barrett has developed a series of sculptures in which she reworks furniture, transforming these domestic symbols into amalgamations and objects of multilayered meaning. For Musafiri: Of Travellers and Guests, Barrett’s installation Paths to Joy. Roscoe Parish Chapeltown, Leeds (2017) investigates the migrant narratives of the Windrush generation, contextualizing the lives of hundreds of people from the Caribbean who moved to the UK in 1948, having been invited to work in and rebuild post-war Britain. She emphasizes the cultural importance of music as a way for diasporic communities to maintain links across borders. The radiogram at the centre of the work was donated by the elders of the Caribbean community in Chapeltown, Leeds. Its extended wires and billowing carpet protector ‘wings’ suggest the idea of joyful ascent—resonating with the Black music that uplifted and provided comfort in many diasporic homes, be it ska, reggae, rocksteady, jazz, or church music.

Work in the exhibition: Paths to Joy. Roscoe Parish Chapeltown, Leeds (2017), radiogram, carpet protectors, 200 × 120 × 60 cm. Courtesy of the artist