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Visitors view Laura Facey's installation, titled 'Body and Blood of Christ' at the National Gallery of Jamaica in downtown Kingston.
Georgia Hemmings, Staff Reporter
INSTALLATION AS a medium for expanded and holistic expression of art was hailed by artists in attendance at the In Discussion session hosted recently by the National Gallery of Jamaica (NGJ) in downtown Kingston.
The panel discussion was organised for artists in the Curator's Eye exhibition to meet with members of the public and discuss their works on display, the process of creation, techniques, themes and other issues relevant to art.
The session was chaired by Petrine Archer-Straw of the NGJ exhibition committee, and included artists Petrona Morrison, Laura Facey Cooper, Hope Brooks, Jiivanii RedMarks, Denise Forbes, Nakazzi Hutchinson, and Natalie Butler, as well as curator Dr. Lowery Simms. Fourteen artists contributed works to the inaugural Curator's Eye exhibition, now showing at the gallery.
The artists agreed that installation provided an experimental space, free from normal constraints, which challenged their artistic skills.
Hope Brooks, for example, stated that "It was such a challenge to do those hanging double-sized canvasses and accompanying screen prints - a challenge relating to time, space, and getting it all together - so much so that I think I might not be able to do paintings on walls again."
Brooks' work (titled Self-Portrait - In Search of the Esence of Life) was "autobiographical in nature, a search for understanding," she explained. "This search has been central to my work, and this installation continues my pursuit of this understanding, while it looks at who I am on several levels."
This installation (which includes images of her granddaughter and critic's comments) required some five months of "intense" involvement, but was a good experience, which challenged me (and all the other artists) to a vision of the diversity of what can be called Jamaican art," she related.
The work was Ms. Brooks' first venture into installation art, outside of the minimalist paintings for which she is known. A practising artist for the last 30 years, Ms. Brooks is the dean of the School of Visual Arts at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts (EMCVPA) in St. Andrew.
INSPIRED BY SELASSIE
Installation art also represented a new experience for photographer/artist Jiivanni RedMarks, who assembled Ascension: Kingdom of Man
This piece is described in the exhibition catalogue as a "surreal-like world in which the museum-goer enters and is asked to contemplate her own spiritual upliftment and connection to the universe. A series of large black and white photographs shows a black man running upwards and disappearing into the infinity of the black-painted walls. In the middle is a transparent image of a man running up a series of steps."
Ms. RedMarks says her work was inspired by Haile Selassie, who once said that he had no allegiance to any nation, only to mankind, and it is this sense of brotherhood and spiritual ascension that is at the heart of her work.
But finding the inspiration was a "three month challenge although after the first jolt of enlightenment, it only took 15 minutes to execute the scale model," the artist recounted.
The other challenge came with installing the work at the gallery: "That took more time than I'd expected, but it was a real spiritual experience for me. I'm glad for a medium that surprises and exites me all the time."
Nakazzi Hutchinson ('Artist of the Year 2001') spoke of the "found", perishable materials which she used to present the female body in the Art of Dreaming.
"I am drawn to materials for their evocative qualities as well as their metaphysical properties," she explained. "I see the evidence of life, growth, beauty, fluidity and balance-decay, erosion, age, life, death in cosmic equilibrium."
SPIRITUALITY
Laura Facey Cooper of Redemption Song fame presented yet another life-sized piece. The torso Body and Blood of Christ stands 10 feet tall, with a chest wound and a shadow of sweet-smelling roses.
"Size was important for me to bring my message across, my spiritual experience" she told the audience. "I think my work is more complete now, and I'm bolder and more courageous."
Petrona Morrison's Reality: Representation seeks to define architectural space, while Denise Forbes in Six Characters In Search of An Author projects art as an event and a performance. Natalie Butler's conceptual piece Import focussed on Jamaican culture and the unequal exchange of imports over exports that globalisation brings.
In the question-and-answer session which followed the presentations, the issue of the future of installation art in Jamaica was raised
Nakazzi Hutchinson feels that "modern art is installation. It provides a form for more intimate unveiling of self, room to explore vision."
For Dr. Simms, "Installation and site-specific tendencies have always lurked at the fringes of the Jamaican art scene and a core group has consistently worked in this area over the last two decades. This exhibition only demonstrates the phenomenal growth of interest among Jamaican artists. And what it has shown is that there are artists capable of confronting the challenges of making art while triumphing over the limitations of finances and materials, magically transforming their world and inspiring those of us priviledged to witness it."
The Curator's Eye exhibition continues at the gallery until June 19.
