Pamela Phatsimo SunstrumDid you never think there would come a time?, 2020
Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum’s practice reimagines traditional mythologies through a deeply personal lens, using narrative as a means to explore identity, history, and memory. Drawing on her own experiences across multiple geographies, she shifts the perspective of classical myths inward, layering them with introspective meaning. Central to her work is the recurring presence of female figures, often situated in imagined landscapes that straddle the real and the fantastical. By referencing and altering nineteenth century photographic portraits of women of colour, Sunstrum creates composite identities that challenge reductive representations and gesture toward a space where personal history and mythological archetypes can coexist.
One of the most compelling figures in her visual lexicon is Asme, a fictional alter ego who appears throughout Sunstrum’s drawings and paintings. Through Asme, Sunstrum stages intimate, speculative narratives that speak to the complexity of Black female subjectivity. These works function as both self-portrait and story, using the figure as a vessel for exploring interiority, vulnerability, and resilience. Sunstrum’s compositions are informed by an eclectic mix of sources – including archival imagery, textbooks, films, and scientific diagrams – integrated into richly layered scenes that question linear time, fixed identity, and singular truths.
