Audrey Albert, Belongers (portraits), 2024.

Audrey Albert : Belongers

Friday 7 February - Saturday 10 May 2025

Public Preview: Thursday 6 February, 6pm - 8pm

Belongers is the first UK solo show by Manchester-based Mauritian-Chagossian artist Audrey Albert. It explores how Chagossians represent themselves and reclaim their identities while navigating life in countries that have never fully felt like ‘home’. The exhibition brings together portraiture, documentary, moving image, cyanotypes, and a traditional Chagossian Kaz (hut), developed through research interviews over the past two years. 

Alongside these works, Albert has invited contributions from other artists and researchers, celebrating the multiplicity of Chagossian identities. The exhibition includes perspectives from Mauritius, Wythenshawe and Crawley, each home to large Chagossian communities, and archival glimpses of the Chagos Islands, reflecting the experiences of a diasporic nation denied the right to return since 1968. 

Hosted in Wales, which aspires to be the world’s first official Nation of Sanctuary, Belongers shines a light on the Chagossian community at a critical moment, as the Chagos Islands and their people continue to be influenced and fragmented by domestic and international political and military agendas.

An IWM 14-18 NOW Legacy Fund commission in partnership with Ffotogallery.