Key discussions on environmental sustainability and global justice specific to Caribbean concerns.
The patchwork is an apt metaphor for the Caribbean, foregrounding the process of Caribbean societies forging identity and identities out of the plural and sometimes conflicting groups that call the region home. Within the metaphor of the patchwork, however, a question arises: where are the vernacular needlework artists within the visual art tradition of the Caribbean?
This book’s introduction sets out to answer this question, and several common themes flow through the ensuing essays and in-depth interviews. Topics explored include issues of land and colonization, long-held perceptions of what the Caribbean is thought to be, and open-ended art-making as opposed to expressing fidelity to a particular medium. The book further explores ecological concerns and questions of sustainability, how the practices of the artists and their art defy the easy categorization of the region, and the placement of women in the visual art ecology of the Caribbean. The latter is one of the most contested areas of the book. Readers will come away with the sense that questions of race, color, and class loom large within questions of gender, particularly in the Jamaican art scene. The book aims to insert vernacular needleworkers into the visual art scene in both Jamaica and the larger Caribbean.
The patchwork is an apt metaphor for the Caribbean, foregrounding the process of Caribbean societies forging identity and identities out of the plural and sometimes conflicting groups that call the region home. Within the metaphor of the patchwork, however, a question arises: where are the vernacular needlework artists within the visual art tradition of the Caribbean?
This book’s introduction sets out to answer this question, and several common themes flow through the ensuing essays and in-depth interviews. Topics explored include issues of land and colonization, long-held perceptions of what the Caribbean is thought to be, and open-ended art-making as opposed to expressing fidelity to a particular medium. The book further explores ecological concerns and questions of sustainability, how the practices of the artists and their art defy the easy categorization of the region, and the placement of women in the visual art ecology of the Caribbean. The latter is one of the most contested areas of the book. Readers will come away with the sense that questions of race, color, and class loom large within questions of gender, particularly in the Jamaican art scene. The book aims to insert vernacular needleworkers into the visual art scene in both Jamaica and the larger Caribbean.
Table of Contents
Introduction
The Importance of Place
Wendy Nanan Talks About the Importance of Place in her Work
Annalee Davis Uses Art to Unearth & Interrogate
For Deborah Anzinger, Ecology is of Utmost Importance
Puerto Rico’s Lionel Cruet’s artworks are focused on the intimate relationship with the environment
The In-Between Places of Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow’s Visual Art Practice
Robin Farquharson Unplugged
The Process of Art-Making
Garfield Morgan discusses an Intuitive approach to art-making
Jasmine Thomas-Girvan Utilizes the Subject of Loss to Right the Wrongs of the Past and the Present
Revisiting & Revising Colonial Narratives Within the Languages of Portraiture & Painting: Interview with Alicia Brown
Living Gratefully: An Interview with Earl McKenzie
Katrina Coombs Discusses Her Fetish for Creating Fine Art Fiber Works
Olivia McGilchrist Explores Caribbean Futures in Virtual Reality Narratives
Women & Visual Culture
Using Objects to Convey Meanings & Break Silences: An Interview with Material Culture Expert Steeve Buckridge
Master Jamaican Mat-Maker Sane Mae Dunkley Wove Together the Story of the Jamaican People
Women and Art: An Interview with O’Neil Lawrence
Jamaica’s Rich Bio-Diversity is Painter Amy Laskin’s Muse
Oneika Russell Engages the Tropical Body & Caribbean Identity
Amanda Coulson Discusses Why Women Artists Should Remain Vigilant
Challenging Boundaries
Jaime Lee Loy Walks the Fine Line Between the Familiar and the Unfamiliar
Sheena Rose Seeks to Challenge People (And Boundaries)
Exploring the Art of Female Sexual Desires
Llanor Alleyne’s Female Figures Grounded in Nature as an assertion and reclamation of inner selves
La Vaugh Belle’s Contemporary Art Practice of Speaking in Layers
Kereina Chang Fatt Uses her Work to Address Relationships, Community and Connectedness
Defying Easy Categorization
Krista Thompson Brings a Critical Eye to what is Confined to the Footnotes of Art History
For Art Historian Edward J. Sullivan, The Caribbean (and Caribbean Artists Like Puerto Rico’s Francisco Oller) Defy Easy Categorization
Queen Victoria Give We Free: Tackling Victorian Jamaica in the Visual Arts
Pre-Raphaelite Sisters Exhibition Features Jamaican
Art Historian and Curator Allison Thompson Believes that Art is a Forum to Envision What Is Possible
Where Others See Fragmentation, Tatiana Flores Sees Continuity in Caribbean Art
The Importance of Place
Wendy Nanan Talks About the Importance of Place in her Work
Annalee Davis Uses Art to Unearth & Interrogate
For Deborah Anzinger, Ecology is of Utmost Importance
Puerto Rico’s Lionel Cruet’s artworks are focused on the intimate relationship with the environment
The In-Between Places of Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow’s Visual Art Practice
Robin Farquharson Unplugged
The Process of Art-Making
Garfield Morgan discusses an Intuitive approach to art-making
Jasmine Thomas-Girvan Utilizes the Subject of Loss to Right the Wrongs of the Past and the Present
Revisiting & Revising Colonial Narratives Within the Languages of Portraiture & Painting: Interview with Alicia Brown
Living Gratefully: An Interview with Earl McKenzie
Katrina Coombs Discusses Her Fetish for Creating Fine Art Fiber Works
Olivia McGilchrist Explores Caribbean Futures in Virtual Reality Narratives
Women & Visual Culture
Using Objects to Convey Meanings & Break Silences: An Interview with Material Culture Expert Steeve Buckridge
Master Jamaican Mat-Maker Sane Mae Dunkley Wove Together the Story of the Jamaican People
Women and Art: An Interview with O’Neil Lawrence
Jamaica’s Rich Bio-Diversity is Painter Amy Laskin’s Muse
Oneika Russell Engages the Tropical Body & Caribbean Identity
Amanda Coulson Discusses Why Women Artists Should Remain Vigilant
Challenging Boundaries
Jaime Lee Loy Walks the Fine Line Between the Familiar and the Unfamiliar
Sheena Rose Seeks to Challenge People (And Boundaries)
Exploring the Art of Female Sexual Desires
Llanor Alleyne’s Female Figures Grounded in Nature as an assertion and reclamation of inner selves
La Vaugh Belle’s Contemporary Art Practice of Speaking in Layers
Kereina Chang Fatt Uses her Work to Address Relationships, Community and Connectedness
Defying Easy Categorization
Krista Thompson Brings a Critical Eye to what is Confined to the Footnotes of Art History
For Art Historian Edward J. Sullivan, The Caribbean (and Caribbean Artists Like Puerto Rico’s Francisco Oller) Defy Easy Categorization
Queen Victoria Give We Free: Tackling Victorian Jamaica in the Visual Arts
Pre-Raphaelite Sisters Exhibition Features Jamaican
Art Historian and Curator Allison Thompson Believes that Art is a Forum to Envision What Is Possible
Where Others See Fragmentation, Tatiana Flores Sees Continuity in Caribbean Art