Heather Marks

I am a visual artist, creative producer, freelance editor, and writer with a background in publishing, bookselling, and producing. My creative practice is rooted in breathing life into the dry bones of archive material and is deeply inspired by the critical fabulation practice of the author Toni Morrison and scholar Sadiya Hartman, and others – Bayo Akomolafe, Isaac Julien, Archie Moore. As an artist I aim to shed light on stories that expand our understanding of histories, people, and the world-building ontologies we might learn from the past.

Recent projects include Fugitives in the Archive (2024, Spike Island), a short film that synthesises historical research, archive material, and poetry into a visual meditation on the history of runaway enslaved persons in 18th century Britain; Conversations with Baldwin (2023 – 24, Words of Colour & partners), an arts festival I curated and produced celebrating the centenary of the writer James Baldwin; Exhibition Researcher, My Words, (2022, Museum of Colour) where I conducted research for the digital exhibition My Words, which showcased 250 years of poets of colour in Britain; Historical Fiction Writer, wherein I have written a historical mystery novel for young adults set in 18th century Bristol (work-in-progress).