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Statement Photographs
of Spiritually infused objects, still life's evocative of magic rites
and rituals and referencing shrines and altars to obscure deities. Images
of a shamanic figure weaving through a personalized interior landscape
reminiscent of the European colonial portraits of native peoples, except
instead of the fake opulent European style backdrops, there is crushed
burlap and the subject is the artist. The
Throne Series are found chairs that are embellished and dedicated to Ancestral
and other spirit forces. Offerings of food, drink and objects that are
culturally or spiritually infused are offered upon or around the thrones
that are meant to attract or seat the deities. Other
works are one of a kind artist books and photographic images on metals
that explore the possibilities of a 3-dimensional looking images on reflective
metals such as copper. One
recent body of work deals with the exploration of Jamaican culture via
the genre of photographic portraiture. Many individuals from the district
of Bamboo in the Parish of St. Ann in Jamaica were photographed and some
of their statements recorded with the images. The social life of the district,
the odd assortment of individuals that revolve around the small country
store and the stories they tell about their lives in Jamaica. This photographic
project is accompanied with video footage. The work was as much about
my interactions with the locals as it was about documentary portraiture.
In
1998 I was chosen to represent Jamaica at the Sao Paulo Biennial, in Sao
Paulo, Brazil. In November of 2000 I will once again represent Jamaica
this occasion is the seventh Havana Biennial in Havana, Cuba. In 2001
Arthur Simms, Keith Morrison and myself represented Jamaica by presenting
the first Jamaica Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in Venice, Italy. A work that has been traveling since 1998 is a kinetic sculptural installation titled Winged Evocations: A Meditation on Flight & Divinity. This work that wasfunded by the Allen Memorial Art Museum in Oberlin, Ohio. It is scheduled for one final exhibition at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Oct. 2003 as part ofa group exhibition on Artists who have worked with flight as a subject.
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