Joanna Rajkowska

The Peterborough Child is a fake archaeological site, created by the artist, with the skeleton of a baby girl shaman. This site was intended as a ‘chakra’ for local people – a place from which to derive spiritual strength. The project had been commissioned for the North and Central wards of Peterborough. It had been inspired by the local Neolithic burial sites, while at the same time providing a commentary on the high infant mortality rate in the districts of the city with a large population of a religious Muslim minority. Following protests by local imams and animated debates, the implementation of the project was stopped, and the box with the skeleton was hidden on the outskirts of the city. Rajkowska’s art often takes the form of an exorcism, working on areas marked by trauma or denial.