Join us at HOME for a view of "MY MUM IS WHITE: exorcising 'half-caste' ghosts" and a panel discussion, exploring the experience of the participants whose personal stories contributed to the exhibition and the research that underpinned the work.
MY MUM IS WHITE collaborative process:
For four weeks HOME’s main gallery will be transformed into a semi-public artist studio and psychotherapy space where artist Linda Brogan and psychologist Professor Adam Danquah will facilitate a journey of psycho-social exploration with an intergenerational group of eight mixed-heritage cultural practitioners based in Manchester. A collective experiment bridging community building, psychotherapy, and visual art.
An evolving exhibition:
Based on each participant's unique story, Brogan will fill the gallery walls with sixteen large-scale drawings using a method of mind mapping she first developed in the early 2000s. This unfolding, unruly forest of lived experience will form a powerful basis for reflection and integration, also creating the setting for the culmination of the group’s journey in a self-devised embodied grief ritual.
The artist says:
I read Wilkerson's ‘Caste: ‘Half-caste’ is just something me and my generation were known as. Wilkerson unearths caste is 3000 years old. Brahmins worship God. Dalits shovel shit. Jim Crow adopts it. Public white sinks are generous. Black sinks barely cling to the wall.
Adam introduces me to Fraiberg’s ‘Ghosts in the Nursery’. ‘In every nursery there are ghosts. Visitors from the unremembered past of the parents.’ Specific ghosts enter a ‘half-caste’ nursery.
Referencing segregated sinks, I will ask eight mixed-race cultural practitioners: ‘What does a ‘half-caste’ sink look like?’ Releasing eight memoirs. I transform into 8’ x 8’ mind-maps. Adam helps us unpack. Transformed into a further eight mind-maps. A forest of ghosts. We exorcise during the waning crescent moon.’
- The term ‘half-caste’ is used in full recognition of its origins in colonialism and the system of chattel slavery, and in recognition of its eventual use as a descriptor in Britain. Brogan and Danquah use the term ‘half-caste’ to signify their shared experience growing up.
MY MUM IS WHITE is a project by Linda Brogan and Adam Danquah. With curatorial input from Hannah Vollam. Produced by Clarissa Corfe (Creative Producer: Visual Art, HOME). Generously supported by Arts Council England.
ABOUT THE PROJECT TEAM
Linda Brogan is a playwright, performer and visual artist. For her project In the Ruins of the Big House (2024) she descended a candlelit staircase at Factory International in a bespoke £2000 denim ball gown using her white mum’s status to declare herself the mistress of the Jamaican plantation her dad descends from. Her immune system fought the caste poison, and she set out on her mission to immunize other mixed-race creative and cultural leaders to affect change.
Adam Danquah is Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Manchester. Drawing on different psychological approaches (attachment theory, mentalisation-based therapy, group analysis), work across contexts (higher education, the NHS, Ghana’s health service) and his own troubles using a sink, Adam is trying to loosen racism’s grip on our psyches.
THE PARTICIPANTS
Darren Pritchard, Freelance Choreographer
Elly Holmes, Equality & Diversity Compliance Officer, UK Universities
Baby Shiloh, Elly’s son, Linda Brogan’s great nephew
Victoria Ofovbe, Community Connector, Factory International
Abi Clarke, Community Partnerships Manager, Factory International
Ciaron Wilkinson, Head of Partnerships & Engagement, Manchester Museum
Adam Danquah, Psychologist, University of Manchester
Linda Brogan, Freelance playwright, performance and visual artists
Accessibility
We want to make the event a positive experience for all participants. If you have particular access needs, please let us know in advance by providing details of any accessibility needs when registering for your ticket or by emailing us at creative@manchester.ac.uk.
Image Credit
Linda Brogan, 8-station mind map (2025).
Incorporating a photograph of Jim Crow era segregated sinks by Elliott Erwitt (c.1950) from the collections of the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution (CC0/Public Domain).
Photo: James Wilmott (2025).
About Creative Manchester
Creative Manchester is an interdisciplinary research platform based at The University of Manchester. The platform champions research in creativity and creative practice, bringing together research communities with external stakeholders to explore new research areas and address strategic opportunities. Please visit the website for more information creative.manchester.ac.uk
