Amanda Bintu Holiday (born 1964) is a Sierra Leonean-British artist, filmmaker and poet.
Life
Amanda Holiday was born in 1964 in
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...
. Aged five, she emigrated to the United Kingdom, and grew up in
Wigan
Wigan ( ) is a town in Greater Manchester, England. The town is midway between the two cities of Manchester, to the south-east, and Liverpool, to the south-west. It is the largest settlement in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan and is its ad ...
Clio Barnard
Clio Barnard (born 1 January 1965) is a British director of documentary and feature films. She won widespread critical acclaim and multiple awards for her debut, '' The Arbor'', an experimental documentary about Bradford playwright Andrea Dunba ...
and
Damien Hirst
Damien Steven Hirst (; né Brennan; born 7 June 1965) is an English artist and art collector. He was one of the Young British Artists (YBAs) who dominated the art scene in the UK during the 1990s. He is reportedly the United Kingdom's richest ...
and went on to study
fine art
In European academic traditions, fine art (or, fine arts) is made primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from popular art, decorative art or applied art, which also either serve some practical function (such as ...
at
Wimbledon School of Art
Wimbledon College of Arts, formerly Wimbledon School of Art, is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London, a public art university in London, England. The college specialises in theatre, screen and performance arts and design ...
graduating in 1987.
Holiday was active in the second wave of the Black British art movement, undertaking large-scale figurative mixed-media drawings. ''The Hum of History'', in charcoal and chalk, was "a cyclic story about hope in the 80s". Her work was exhibited in major 1980s black British art exhibitions including ''Creation for Liberation'', ''Some of us are Brave'', '' Black Art: Plotting the Course'' and '' Black Perspectives''.
She directed the short video ''Employing the Image'' (1989) as part of the Arts Council Black Arts Video Project featuring the work of contemporary black visual artists
Sonia Boyce
Dame Sonia Dawn Boyce (born 1962) is a British British African-Caribbean community, Afro-Caribbean artist and educator who lives and works in London. She is a Professor of Black Art and Design at University of the Arts London. Boyce's research ...
Zarina Bhimji
Zarina Bhimji (born 1963) is a Ugandan Indian photographer, based in London. She was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2007, exhibited at Documenta 11 in 2002, and is represented in the public collections of Tate, the Museum of Contemporary Ar ...
Allan deSouza
Allan deSouza (born 1958) is a transmedia artist, photographer, art writer, and professor. Their work deals with issues of migration, overlapping histories, and the poetics of relocation. They work in the San Francisco Bay Area, and are Full Pro ...
. Holiday directed shorts including ''Umbrage'' funded by Arts Council/C4, ''Miss Queencake'' as part of BFI New Directors and ''Manao Tupapau'' funded by Arts Council/BBC. ''Miss Queencake'' was shown at the
Torino Film Festival
The Torino Film Festival (also called the Turin Film Festival, TFF) is an international film festival held annually in Turin, Italy. Held every November, it is the second largest film festival in Italy, following the Venice Film Festival. It was f ...
. It tells the story of a mixed-race teenager, Bira, from the North of England married off to a white boatman. Embarking on her honeymoon, Bira escapes the racism of her everyday life by constructing a fantasy world in which she is a princess. ''Manao Tupapau'' looked at the experience of
Merahi metua no Tehamana
''Merahi metua no Tehamana'' (English ''Tehamana Has Many Parents'' or ''The Ancestors of Tehamana'') is an 1893 painting by the French people, French artist Paul Gauguin, currently in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. The painting ...
modelling for
Paul Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramist, and writer, whose work has been primarily associated with the Post-Impressionist and Symbolist movements. He was also an influ ...
in
Tahiti
Tahiti (; Tahitian language, Tahitian , ; ) is the largest island of the Windward Islands (Society Islands), Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France. It is located in the central part of t ...
.
From 2001 to 2010 Holiday lived in
Cape Town
Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...
, writing and directing several educational television series.
In 2019, Holiday completed the Creative Writing (Poetry) MA course at the
University of East Anglia
The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a Public university, public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus university, campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and twenty-six schools of ...
Brighton University
The University of Brighton is a public university based in Brighton on the south coast of England. Its roots can be traced back to 1858 when the Brighton School of Art was opened in the Royal Pavilion. It achieved university status in 1992.
Th ...
.
Work
Exhibitions
* ''Creation for Liberation 3rd Open Exhibition: Contemporary Art by Black Artists''. GLC Brixton Recreation Centre, London. 1985. With Clement Bedeau, Chila Burman,
Pogus Caesar
Pogus Caesar (born 1953)"Pogus Caesar" ''Diaspora Artists''. is a British ...
, Margaret Cooper,
Eddie Chambers
Edward Chambers (born March 29, 1982) is an American former professional boxer. He challenged once for a unified world heavyweight title in 2010. He was ranked as the fourth best heavyweight in the world by '' The Ring'' at the conclusion of 200 ...
,
Stella Dadzie
Stella Dadzie (born in 1952) is a British educationalist, activist, writer and historian. She is best known for her involvement in the UK's Black Women's Movement, being a founding member of the Organisation of Women of African and Asian Desce ...
Lubaina Himid
Lubaina Himid (born 1954) is a British artist and curator. She is a professor of contemporary art at the University of Central Lancashire.Anthony Jadunath, George Kelly,
Pitika Ntuli
Pitika Ntuli (born 1942) is a South African sculptor, poet, writer, and academic who spent 32 years of his life in exile in Swaziland and the UK.
Biography
Pitika Ntuli was born in Springs, Gauteng, South Africa, and grew up in Witbank in Mpu ...
Maud Sulter
Maud Sulter (19 September 1960 – 27 February 2008) was a Scottish contemporary fine artist, photographer, writer, educator, feminist, cultural historian, and curator of Ghanaian heritage. She began her career as a writer and poet, becoming a v ...
,
Aubrey Williams
Aubrey Williams (8 May 1926 – 27 April 1990) was a Guyanese artist. He was best known for his large, oil-on-canvas paintings, which combine elements of abstract expressionism with forms, images and symbols inspired by the pre-Columbian art o ...
, and
Shakka Dedi Shakka may refer to:
* ''Shakka'' (film), 1981 Bollywood Action film
* Shakka (god), Babylonian and Akkadian patron god of herdsmen
* Shakka (singer)
Shakka Philip (born 16 May 1989), known simply as Shakka, is a British singer, songwriter an ...
.
*''Some of Us are Brave'', Black Art Gallery, 1986. With Simone Alexander, Sonia Boyce, Lubaina Himid, Mowbray Odonkor, Marlene Smith and
Maud Sulter
Maud Sulter (19 September 1960 – 27 February 2008) was a Scottish contemporary fine artist, photographer, writer, educator, feminist, cultural historian, and curator of Ghanaian heritage. She began her career as a writer and poet, becoming a v ...
. 0/sup>
* ''Creation for Liberation 4th Open Exhibition: Contemporary Art by Black Artists''. Brixton Village, London. 1987. With Achar Kumar Burman, Margaret Cooper, Zil Hoque, and Fitzroy Sang.
*''Umbrage,'' Bedford Hill Gallery, solo show 1987
*''Black Perspectives,'' South London Gallery 1987. With Simone Alexander, Mowbray Odonkor et al 2/sup>
* ''The Room Next to Mine''. Bedford Hill Gallery, 1988. With Simone Alexander.
* ''The Image Employed: The Use of Narrative in Black Art''.
Cornerhouse
Cornerhouse was a cinema and contemporary visual arts centre next to Oxford Road Station on Oxford Street, Manchester, England, from 1985 to 2015. It had three floors of art galleries, three cinemas, a bookshop, bar and café. Cornerhouse was ...
,
Manchester
Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
. With Simone Alexander,
Zarina Bhimji
Zarina Bhimji (born 1963) is a Ugandan Indian photographer, based in London. She was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2007, exhibited at Documenta 11 in 2002, and is represented in the public collections of Tate, the Museum of Contemporary Ar ...
Chila Kumari Burman
Chila Kumari Singh Burman is a British artist, celebrated for her radical feminist practice, which examines representation, gender and cultural identity. She works across a wide range of mediums including printmaking, drawing, painting, install ...
Claudette Johnson
Claudette Elaine Johnson (born 1959) is a British visual artist. She is known for her large-scale drawings of Black women and her involvement with the BLK Art Group, of which she was a founder member. She was described by Modern Art Oxford as ...
,
Tam Joseph
Tam Joseph (born 1947) is a Dominica-born British painter, formerly known as Tom Joseph. Described as "a uniquely talented, multidimensional artist" by art historian Eddie Chambers, "Tam Joseph has contributed a number of memorable paintings th ...
Donald Rodney
Donald Gladstone Rodney (18 May 1961 – 4 March 1998) was a British artist. He was a leading figure in Britain's BLK Art Group of the 1980s and became recognised as "one of the most innovative and versatile artists of his generation." Rodney's wo ...
Camden Arts Centre
Camden Art Centre (known as Hampstead Arts Centre until 1967 and Camden Arts Centre until 2020) is a contemporary art gallery in the London Borough of Camden, England. It hosts temporary exhibitions and educational outreach projects, with a prog ...
Tony Phillips
Keith Anthony Phillips (April 25, 1959 – February 17, 2016) was an American professional baseball utility player who had an 18-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career from 1982 to 1999. He played regularly at second base, but also had signifi ...
Mark Sealy
Mark Sealy (born 1960) is a British curator and cultural historian with a special interest in the relationship of photography to social change, identity politics and human rights. In 1991 he became the director of Autograph ABP, the Associati ...
Yinka Shonibare
Yinka Shonibare (born 9 August 1962), is a British artist living in the United Kingdom. His work explores cultural identity, colonialism and post-colonialism within the contemporary context of globalisation. A hallmark of his art is the bright ...
, Dionne Sparks, and Maud Sulter.
*''Progress Reports,'' Art in an era of Diversity, INIVA 2010. With Manick Govinda, Karen Alexander, Zarina Bhimji, Kara Walker, Julie Dash and Harold Offeh et al.3/sup>
Films
* ''Babel'', 1988.
* ''Employing the Image - Making Space for Ourselves'', 1989.
* ''Umbrage'', 1990.
* ''Miss Queencake'', 1991.
* ''Manao Tupapau (The Spirit of the Dead Watches)'', 1993.
* '' The Curtain'', 1992
Writing
* ''The Art Poems''. Akashic Books, 2018. Chapbook. Included in
*
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...