Those that do not smile will kill me’: Decolonising Jamaican Flora Jessica Ashman (2025)
‘All power emanates from the land’ - a 5 channel exhibition soundscape (31mins 57s)
‘All power emanates from the land’ is a 5 channel soundscape for Jessica Ashman’s exhibition ‘Those that do not smile will kill me’. The title comes from an Akan proverb:
Tumi nyina ne asase = All power emanates from Land / Asase Ye Duru = The Land has weight
Jessica asked me to collaborate with her on making a sound world for the trinity depicted in the work: Afiba, Deity and Juba and the plants central to their lives. Through research, reimagining, song, drone, noise, rhythm, field recordings and sound design, we composed a score that speaks to resistance, liberation, and connection with the land.
Jessica Ashman on her exhibition:
My installation crosses many disciplines: silk painting, animation, soundscape and costumed musical performances. The exhibition will portray narratives of how enslaved and indigenous people engaged with the land for survival, resistance and celebration to form their own “paradise”. The show explores the medicinal and spiritual uses of plants by enslaved Jamaican and Maroon communities, centred around three women. Two are be enslaved individuals, the other a fictitious deity that speaks to the rebellious history of carnival masquerade within the Caribbean, acting as a guiding light for the other women.
The exhibition title comes from an old Jamaican riddle about when to pick Ackee fruit; a component of Ackee and Saltfish, Jamaica’s national dish. Ackee is quite poisonous if you pick it when it isn’t ripe and so the riddle goes: “Me fader send me to pick out a wife; tell me to tek only those that smile, fe those that do not smile wi’ kill me!” When Ackee is ripe, the fruit opens or ‘smiles’, revealing that it is ready to eat.
More from her interview about the exhibition HERE
Soundscape Credits
Soundscape composed by Jessica Ashman and Auclair Mixing and mastering: Ky Perfect Samples: thanks to the following for audio samples - Yewande Odunubi (Forest at Dawn and Dusk - Portland, Jamaica) and SOHO/MDI - solar sonification (ESA & NASA).
