Brad Pinnock - Stupid Box, 2022, video installation, at New Local Space, Kingston This new series puts the spotlight on the exciting young artists who have emerged in Jamaica in recent years, many of them as graduates of the Edna Manley College. The features will be based on studio visits (virtual and actual) and interviews,... Continue Reading →
Letter from Haiti: Cross-Residencies and Cultural Institutions
Detail of a work by Patrick Villaire at his studio (photo: Veerle Poupeye) This post was first published in the Jamaica Monitor of February 6, 2022. It is now reproduced here with a few updates and corrections. The occasion for my trip to Haiti, which ended on February 4, was my role in the Caribbean... Continue Reading →
Bewigged – Greg Bailey’s Post-colonial Paraphernalia
Greg Bailey - Lady Locks (2021) I am privileged to have been invited to curate the debut solo exhibition of the Jamaican artist Greg Bailey is entitled Post-Colonial Paraphernalia. The exhibition explores the lingering effects of colonial symbols and and features ten new oil paintings and one drawing. The exhibition is on view at Creativ... Continue Reading →
Notes on the Columbus Statues of the Caribbean
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 →