By Leslie Goodwin

There can’t have been many hit singles with lyrics which delve into taboo themes such as slavery and sadomasochism. But the Rolling Stones managed it in Brown Sugar, the early 1970s floor-filler that somehow seems even edgier now than it was when it was released.

Artist Philomena Francis explores a related subject with her latest installation, but in a far subtler fashion.

Mo’Lasses IV, which runs at Leicester’s City Gallery from April 4 to June 6, takes inspiration and influence from a variety of colonial and popular reference points.

She creates astonishing installations based around wall drawings to illustrate the ways in which the black female body is understood in the 21st century.

Her medium of choice? Treacle.

Brown sugar has connotations of black female sexuality in popular culture and, historically, sugar, from which treacle is derived, played a vital economic role in the slave trade.

The paints that Philomena uses refer to the Georgian middle classes who drove the sugar industry.

Through her work, Philomena suggests the complexity and contradictions of black female identity in contemporary society.

She is also interested in pushing beyond the traditions of drawing and painting by moving into a more immediate, sensory realm. The treacle fills the space with its wonderful, tainted aroma and is powerfully evocative.

The various media Philomena uses are a key element of her work. The rough canvas used in the wall hangings of Philomena’s Brown Sugar series were reminiscent of the sacks used to transport sugar processed in small mills during  Philomena’s father’s childhood

in Jamaica.