About this artwork

Jackie Kay was born in Edinburgh to a Scottish mother and a Nigerian father, and was adopted at birth by a couple from Glasgow. Initially Kay wanted to be an actor and attended the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama whilst also reading English at the University of Stirling. Her first collection of poetry, The Adoption Papers (1991), won several awards including the Scottish Arts Council Book Award. Other works – poetry, fiction and plays – explore the power of language, health and sickness, the experience of being black in Britain and identity and gender issues. The experience of sitting for this bust inspired Kay to write a collection of eight poems, entitled Life Mask (2005), about love, loss, and mistaken and secret identity.

Updated before 2020

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Michael Snowden

Michael Snowden