Collections Online

Donald Rodney was a prominent figure in Britain's BLK Art Group - a collective of young Black British Artists who came together in the 1980s to explore what art was, could be and how they could inspire others through their work. This is one of Rodney’s last works, and one of his best known. In the artist’s hand sits a small sculpture made from his skin, which had been removed during treatment for sickle cell anaemia. An inherited genetic condition, it is particularly prevalent in people of African or Caribbean descent. A moving self-portrait, the work retains an ambiguous power. It carries profound messages around inherited experience.