By Sana Rose, Contributor 
GROSVENOR GALLERIES is the venue for the posthumous exhibition, "A Selection of Works" by William "Woody" Joseph.
Woody died in 1998. The show is a collection of wood sculpture coloured in an earthy red-brown or black. No titles
are given in this show but the characteristic human, a lone
animal and two stick forms
are presented.
Hailing from Castleton, St. Mary, Woody's career as artist includes his participation in the notable exhibitions, "The Intuitive Eye" and "Fifteen Intuitives", both held at the National Gallery of Jamaica in 1979 and 1989 respectively, among others. Woody and other artists of like genre such as Kapo were grouped as "Intuitives", a term coined for local, self-taught artists by Dr. David Boxer, Director Emeritus of the National Gallery, as an alternative to the more pejorative labels "primitive" and "naive".
Interpretations of Woody's work are continuously linked to African art as the artist's visual expressions are formally and perhaps conceptually intertwined with these sculptural forms. The works offered for viewing this exhibition are akin to African art because they display African formal retentions and as such, they are devoid of any European academicism, bearing no resemblance whatsoever to the idealised Greek, Italian or other such aesthetic concepts.
IDEAS
These academic ideas must be purged from one's mind before entering in the exhibition space because they have no place here. These works are part of an entirely different set of aesthetic notions and questions of drawing skills and fine art and craft distinctions are irrelevant.
The predominant shape of Woody's pieces are heads, most of which sprout wings on either side of or close to the face. The basic features of the face are presented without much definition but we are convinced of what they are. One wonders what the artist is really trying to communicate to us as we view the works. Some of the forms appear to be metamorphosing, as they are almost indistinct merging and emerging from the single blocks of wood.
The metamorphosis may be one interpreted as a progression towards flight and may remind one of foetuses in a womb in the act of developing. This is evident in piece number 30 with three heads that swell at the thicker joints in the wood in an upward motion while wings begin their outward stretch as the entire form balances on one foot. The process of metamorphosis is not a torturous event but a seemingly natural path of liberation literally from the wood itself and perhaps a spiritual ascendance.
The sculpture are designed to be viewed mainly from the front but are not obtrusive. The faces that protrude from the irregular-shaped pieces of wood are solid, having the appearance of silhouetted forms due to their single colours especially when they are painted black. However, they possess a kind of humility as if the artist has extended an invitation to us to witness the emergence and reshaping of the forms as they go through the sequences of a quiet liberation.
The figures of Woody's art may seem easy to dismiss due to their simple configurations but as we engage with the work we become aware of a cohesive line of thinking. The artist is quoted as saying that he creates from "an inner compulsion" which has developed outside of mainstream Jamaican art much like his contemporaries.
This small exhibition allows us to connect once again with this visionary artist in his physical absence, encountering through his work, Woody's soulful ancestral sensibility. The show continues until May 31.
