Created especially for Our Lady and St Nicholas Church Gardens – the burial location of Liverpool’s first recorded Black resident and former slave, Abell (d.1717) -Ranti Bam offers a new meeting point for visitors to gather in mediation, contemplation, and discourse.

Inspired by the profound curative and narrative powers of clay, Bam presents seven new sculptures from her ‘Ifa’ series (2021-23). Through an intimate and time-sensitive creation process, Bam explores themes around fragility and vulnerability, intimacy and care, feminine labour and strength. The artist proposes clay as a medium for understanding human’s inseparability from our environment. The title ‘Ifa’ references the Yoruba word ‘I-fàá’, meaning ‘to pull close’, as well as ‘Ifá’, the Yoruba system of divination – Yoruba are one of the largest ethnic groups in Nigeria, concentrated in the southwestern part of the country. The sculpted stools, known as ‘Akpoti’ are integral to indigenous life and are used for rest, care, communication, and communal gatherings. Together, they seek to encourage rest, soothing and love. They act as an alter at which to honour memory and to thank our ancestors – a ritual commonly practiced in many African and global religions.