The story of Anansi is one that has been told through oral tradition of West African families for generations, a part man part spider, seeker of knowledge and trickster. When viewing its iterations the effect of the slave trade has moulded these stories into different forms when passed down through areas of displacement.

These illustrations look at how that story changed when used in West Africa, the Caribbean and African American retellings. Looking at how the new found culture of each dispersed peoples shaped the folk-tales of lore.

Each of these spiders represents a piece of west african culture as traditional carvings in wood and gold, with Caribbean influences and their folklores similar deities and tricksters, the African Americal Civil Rights Scholar, prison systems and Anasi’s representations of death. Each one tied to how our cultural stories change with the passing of time and location.

These were created as modular pieces that create new stories by blending accessories and gamuts taken from stories of the characters.