Following the cancellation of South African artist Brett Bailey’s “human zoo” exhibit, the performers involved in the art installation have shown their unhappiness that it’s been shut down.

“Exhibit B” shows “the ‘human zoos’ that existed in the 19th-and 20th-centuries, forcing viewers to confront a heinous moment in history head on”. The show has been seen by 25 000 people in 12 cities, but The Barbican could not keep it open.

Priscilla Adade-Helledy, a young black woman living in London, was one of the actresses in the show, and is unhappy that not only work, but her artistic expression has been taken away.

I felt real investment in this work, and ownership over my role. Sometimes you come across a piece and just go, ‘That’s it! That’s exactly what I want to say.’ We all really saw this as a journey, as a way of changing things. But also, for me, I learned a lot about my own identity—like, I was born in Brussels and I never even knew the last Human Zoo was in Brussels, in 1958.

Priscilla was also asked how she felt after finding out the piece has been shut down.

The first thing was I tried to find words, but I came out in tears. In all my experiences of racism I’ve never actually had someone say to me, ‘You can’t do your art.’ We were being totally unvoiced by the people who said they were anti-racists. It was really depressing.

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