Jamaica has a very contentious history with public art and, particularly, with some of the official monuments to key historical moments and public figures that have been erected since Independence. As I write this post, there are rumblings about the recently unveiled maquette for a statue to the popular Olympian track athlete Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and,... Continue Reading →
The School of Visual Arts/EMC Final Year Exhibition: Six Highlights
I always look forward to the annual final year exhibition of the School of Visual Arts of the Edna Manley College and the opening is usually a much-anticipated, well-attended local art world event. It is, by and large, in this exhibition that we see the future of art in Jamaica (and the broader Caribbean) emerging... Continue Reading →
Memoirs: Visiting Leonard Daley
My father-in-law, Walter Rammelaere, passed away recently. He was, among other things, an amateur photographer and when my husband, Marc, rummaged through his photographic files recently, he found photographs of a long-forgotten visit to the self-taught, "Intuitive" Jamaican artist Leonard Daley (1930-2006), who lived in the hills of St Catherine. I have reproduced a few... Continue Reading →
Art Museums and Social Hierarchy – Epilogue
Sometimes you think you said everything you had to say on a particular subject, and perhaps too much--my two-part post on Art Museums and Social Hierarchy was not exactly short (you can find part I here and part II here). But then something else happens, and you are forced to rethink some of your assessments,... Continue Reading →
Art Museums and Social Hierarchy – Part II
This is the second part of a two-part blog post. The first part can be read here. How can [art] participate in networks of power that its content willfully rejects? Often, so-called ‘political art’ simply aestheticises protest or resistance. Sometimes, it has the effect of moral licensing – instilling in its viewer a false sense... Continue Reading →
Art Museums and Social Hierarchy – Part I
This is the first of a two-part post. The second part, which takes the issues to the Caribbean and Jamaica, can be found here. Museums are managers of consciousness. They give us an interpretation of history, of how to view the world and locate ourselves in it. They are, if you want to put it... Continue Reading →