Mithras Meets Montage: Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum’s Artful Archaeology Beneath London
Beneath London’s bustling financial district, Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum has transformed an ancient Roman temple into a stage for her own mythmaking. Her exhibition, "The Pavilion," weaves together five animations, each drawing on the timeless motif of the hero’s journey. These works don’t just retell old stories—they dissect how histories are constructed, who holds the pen, and how those narratives ripple from the cosmic to the personal.
Sunstrum’s approach is hands-on and hybrid: she cuts, collages, and animates by hand, embracing the tactile imperfections that digital tools often erase. Her recurring cast of female figures—especially her alter ego, Asme—navigate landscapes shaped by migration, colonial legacies, and shifting identities. Victorian cabinets and church pews reappear, not as relics, but as sites for renegotiating power and belonging.
Every frame, every surface, is a patchwork of places and times—Botswana, London, The Hague—stitched together in a restless search for meaning. In Sunstrum’s world, the gaps and overlaps are where the real stories live, always just out of reach, always in motion.
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