Ernesto Gilbert - Columbus (1887), Columbus Park, Santo Domingo (Photo: Veerle Poupeye, all righs reserved) This post is extracted from an ongoing and as yet incomplete research project on monuments and statues in the Caribbean. There is hardly an island in the Caribbean that does not have a Columbus monument and some have more than... Continue Reading →
Creative Iconoclasm: What To Do With Those Colonial Monuments? – Part 2
This is the second part of a two-part post. Part 1 can be found here. The Caribbean is replete with statues that represent similar ideas about White Supremacy and Colonialism. Some of these statues date from the Plantation era but others, such as the Columbus Lighthouse in Santo Domingo, which was unveiled in 1992, are... Continue Reading →
Provocations: Navigating The Creative Industries
This is the first of a new series of shorter critical interventions on salient issues. The posts will pose questions, rather than to attempt to provide answers, and they are meant to be conversation starters, and comments are welcomed, as usual. There have been a lot of conversations here in the Caribbean, of late, on... Continue Reading →
Inside Pandora’s Box: A Few Thoughts about Art in the Age of Corona – Part II
This is the second of a three-part post. Part I can be found here and part III is forthcoming. In 1961, the then young politician Edward Seaga delivered his seminal speech "The Haves and the Have Nots" in the Jamaican Upper House. Irrespective of how we may feel about the ideological and political path Seaga... Continue Reading →
A Note on Art Appraisals
People approach me all the time with requests for appraisals of works of art. While it is clear that the demand is present here in Jamaica, and that I could perhaps make a pretty penny if I would offer such services, I am reluctant to do so for two reasons. One is that I am... Continue Reading →
Caribbean Conversations – Errol Ross Brewster – Part II
Errol Ross Brewster - Stop Death from Malnutrition (1984) Here is part II of my conversation with Errol Ross Brewster. Part I can be found here. Veerle Poupeye:- You were born and raised at a time when Guyana was entering a period of political and ideological radicalism, which significantly impacted the course of the country... Continue Reading →