Nature’s Wild grew out of the book of the same name and addressed the same tensions: human-animal relations and histories of animalization and race in the Caribbean — how colonists, then postcolonial elites, put the onus on marginalized people to prove themselves human and “not-animal,” for example through dress codes, laws about sexuality, and definitions of citizenship.

Even if partially imagined, the cancellation of the exhibition was still shocking, a kind of summary execution with no warning, and no recourse. My disappointment was overlaid by anger and disbelief — and yes, fear. What was happening in the US had come into my house, into my home here in Canada, in a deeply personal way.

“Gawd hates de sin, not de sinnah,” Genie reminded. She could almost see the angst in her husband’s eyes, she knew him thoroughly. He was a good man. Had married her in a community where women had to make miserable choices, often deciding whom to cohabit with based on gang colors or who could offer them protection.

In this meditation Garth White’s framing of rudie has been edited, revised and expanded in order to apply it to different eras of the music over time and location. His approach remains the initial touchstone for how we can understand rudie culture.
In this re-imagining rudie can only be multi-dimensional and multi-gender.

Interior’s most striking feature is the taxidermized bird embedded within it. Possibly a direct reference to the Ziz, the bird can also be seen as a poignant symbol for the act of sacrifice. The root meaning of sacrifice is to ‘make something holy’. The way this creature which has forever departed its mortal shell is remade into something, commanding such awe is a means of transmuting it into something holy. Its encasement in clear glass is also meaningful — a material which like water is reflective and often considered a portal. Here it serves as a container, trapping a thing that was once free and unbound even from the laws of gravity. The creature is given a second life in a way, but a life it cannot make use of.