ANDIL GOSINE: Coolie, Coolie Viens

Ramabai Espinet

The taunt of “coolie” is familiar to any Trinidadian. The act of turning the derogatory appellate into a revolutionary source of pride and defiance, exemplified of course, by the linguistic trajectory of the “n” word, has not taken root among Trinis in the Caribbean as it has in Guyana or within the collapsing boundaries in the diaspora. Indeed, throughout the Caribbean the word has multiple meanings ranging from neutral descriptor to racial slur. The title of Gosine’s solo exhibition, Coolie Coolie Viens, at the McIntosh Gallery, London, subverts the well-known verse used by Indians in the nuanced marking of difference inside the racialized arena of joking and mock-insults among Indians and Africans in Trinidad & Tobago.

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Bernard Hoyes: An Interview. Part 1

Annie Paul

Born in 1951 in Kingston, Jamaica, Bernard Hoyes was attracted to art at an early age. Surviving a hard childhood and penurious circumstances in Jamaica, Hoyes migrated to the United States in his teens, gradually finding his feet and developing a thriving art practice in Los Angeles.

Heavily influenced by his early exposure to Revival, Kumina and other Afro-Jamaican religious traditions Hoyes’ work stylizes the harmonies, rhythms and rapture of vernacular Jamaican spirituality. His work has been used on the covers of early books by Kei Miller and his paintings have been collected by noted African-Americans such as Oprah Winfrey, Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor. Known today as a master printer and sculptor we hope Hoyes’s work will one day be part of the national collection.

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10th Berlin Biennale: We Don’t Need Another Hero (REVIEW)

David Frohnapfel

Curated by Gabi Ngcobo with Nomaduma Rosa Masilela, Serubiri Moses, Thiago de Paula Souza, and Yvette Mutumba

We will no longer be erased, but we refuse to be seen.

Jota Mombaça, May 2018, handout for the performance We Agreed Not to Die at HAU Hebbel am Ufer for the launch of the new issue of the journal C&  (anchor image)

The first artwork you encounter at the entrance of the 10th Berlin Biennale at Kunst-Werke in Berlin is a group portrait taken by São Paulo-based artist Cinthia Marcelle. In her ongoing series Legendaries Marcelle demystifies cultural institutions by taking portraits of several people working behind the scenes of cultural centres. She also selected 14 employees from the history and present of Kunst-Werke—the art institute hosting the Biennale—who are not all considered to be “main players” of the field and whose labour is often invisible. Most immediately, this photograph can be read as a gesture of appreciation of and recognition for invisible labour. But I cannot help but read Marcelle’s photograph of 14 white employees looking back at my own white body as a commentary about politics of accessibility. As a starting point for the Biennale, the introductory photograph captures the institutional whiteness of Kunst-Werke quite beautifully. 

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ART-icles: Peter Minshall

 

Minshall-ColouredMan_1971_fromYGallery
The Coloured Man (1971) Crayon on paper 12″ x 12″
Minshall-ARainbowforEveryman_fromYGalleryCatalogue
A Rainbow for Everyman (1986) Ink stamp and acrylic on card, mounted on board 62.75″ x 12″

‘A Rainbow for Everyman’ was created by Minshall in early 1986 in response to a mural design competition announced by the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago. The mural would be for the Bank’s new office building, one of the just-completed ‘twin towers’ on Independence Square, which would have its official opening later that year. The brief was for a mural 63’ wide by 14’ high, to be located on the ground floor, high on the wall above what were then the teller windows through which foreign exchange allowances were dispensed. (The Bank’s judge for the competition, Kynaston McShine, eventually selected as the winner Willi Chen’s design, ‘Solar Marineorama’.) Continue reading “ART-icles: Peter Minshall” →