An

Interview

with

Pamela

Phatsimo

Sunstrum

Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum was raised in a multicultural family across different regions of Africa, Southeast Asia and North America. Her artistic practices include performance, installation, drawing and animation. Her exhibitions are multilayered and frequently weave together cultural and art-historical references with elements of fantasy, addressing themes of power dynamics and the human condition. To better delve into her personal experience of Blackness, she created an alter-ego named Asme. This character, which appears throughout her work, is a time and space traveller who navigates various cultural, historical and geographic settings. She has been cited in most surveys of major contemporary artists from Africa and her work is in collections such as the A4 Art Collection, Cape Town; TATE, London; the National Gallery of Canada; Hessel Museum at Bard College; and FRAC des Pays de la Loire Contemporary Collection, Carquefou, France.

In her highly ambitious and riveting exhibition at The Curve gallery at the Barbican (19 September 2024 – 5 January 2025) she has created a series of sets and passageways (with the help of architect Remco Osorio Lobato) to tell the story of Bettina, who has left her rural home to go to a big city to pursue her dreams of stardom. Bettina is a femme fatale trying to adapt to the circumstances she finds herself in by committing a crime with serious consequences. In this interview conducted at the Curve’s Member’s Room on the 17 September 2024, she discusses her inspirations and her hopes for the future.