Cinderella Tours Europe

‘Cinderella Tours Europe’ is a series of nineteen photographs, and was commissioned by the Organisation of Visual Arts (London). This practice-based research has its origins in a small part of an earlier research, ‘Memory and Skin’, which included interviews with Caribbean people about what Europe is like. ‘Cinderella Tours Europe’ involved the invention of a character of Caribbean origin who is continually looking out towards the big cities of Europe where she dreams of a more better life. The narrative of Cinderella is the journey taken by a pair of golden high-healed shoes. These shoes both represent a perceived European glamour conflated with the moneyed perception of some aspects of Caribbean life especially the corruption associated with cocaine cartels. On this Grand Tour the landmark subjects of tourist photography such as the Eiffel Tower become a backdrop to the shoes and the shoes become a metaphor for the tourist in the foreground of the photographs.

‘Cinderella Tours Europe’ was first exhibited at Pitshanger Manor Gallery, London, 22 March 2001. It had a second solo exhibition at Archivo Del Territoria Historico De Alva, Vittoria-Gasteiz, Spain in 2003. The series of 20 photographs are reproduced in the artist’s book ‘Objects of Beauty’ in 2004 published with the support of Arts Council England and Autograph. The series is also discussed with Rohini Malik Okon in the interview with the artist appearing in the volume.