- Sana Rose photo
Nakazzi Huthinson - section of 'The Art of Dreaming'.Sana Rose, Contributor
The following is the first part of a two-part review of Curator's Eye I: Install/In the Moment/In Site currently showing at the National Gallery of Jamaica. The second part follows next week.
THE INAUGURAL exhibition of the Curator's Eye series at the National Gallery was launched on January 18 after a one-month postponement due to financial constraints.
This series, which alternates with the National Biennial show (previously staged as the Annual National exhibition), extends an invitation to an overseas curator to "present what s/he sees as a vital or interesting aspect of Jamaican art."
Dr. Lowery Stokes-Sims, an African-American curator/art historian who has functioned in the capacity of executive director of the Studio Museum in Harlem, is this year's presenter. She has chosen as her focus, installation and site-specific art.
While an exhibition dedicated solely to installation is not new to our local art scene, it is, in fact, a rare occurrence.
In the National Gallery's case, Curator's Eye I serves as a reminder of the 1985 show, Six Options: Gallery Spaces Transformed curated by our own Rosalie Smith-McCrae who currently resides off the island.
This time around, all the artists are all Jamaican and greater in number, unlike its predecessor which presented four Jamaican and two African-American artists.
Returning for the second staging of an exhibition of this nature are Dr. David Boxer and Laura Facey-Cooper who participated in Six Options. Young artist Allison Perkins-Smith, who collaborated on an installation with Natalie Butler for the first staging of the National Biennial in 2002, also declined the invitation.
YOUNG TALENT
From the Young Talent exhibition pool of 2002 are Nakazzi Hutchinson, Jiivannii RedMarks and Khary Darby, with conspicuous absences from Khepera Oluyia Hatsheptwa and Christopher Irons.
Like Young Talent, only one self-taught is part of the show.
Dubbed 'Install/In the Moment/In Site', Curator's Eye I brings together 14 artists who are either wholly or partly committed to the installation artform, or are embarking on the challenge of confronting, developing and transforming (a) space for the first time beyond the singular artwork often associated with more traditional modes of art-making.
While the usual exponents of installation Dr. David Boxer, Petrona Morrison, and more recently, Natalie Butler are part of the group, most of the artists are usually categorised as painters, sculptors or photographers.
However, Laura Facey-Cooper, Margaret Chen, Omari Ra, Nakazzi Hutichinson and the expatriates, Albert Chong and Nari Ward, have experience in the medium at varied degrees.
The most interesting additions to the show are the first-timer Hope Brooks and sculptor/theatre designer Denise Forbes who embarked on ambitious projects/ideas for the show.
It is also good that Ward, who resides abroad and has represented Jamaica in overseas exhibitions, is a participant, and since this is his first show here, his native Jamaican audience is offered an opportunity to see his work first-hand.
The women artists of the show outnumber the men, albeit by a narrow margin of eight to six.
Of the three artists who are primarily involved in installation two are women Petrona Morrison and Natalie Butler but it is the third artist of the group Dr. David Boxer who is credited by Veerle Poupeye in the book Modern Jamaican Art, as being "the first Jamaican artist to venture systematically in collage, assemblage and installation art."
Dr. Simms disclosed that her curatorial statement is to show the public that installation art is a very strong tendency in Jamaica, and to broaden concepts of our art beyond the boundaries of commodity-based works.
The very nature of installation with space as its most significant element precludes its consideration as a singular object and may, for some viewers, be somewhat of a revolutionary concept despite its existence since Dadaist and Surrealist ideas surfaced in the early and mid-20th century.
When one looks at our art scene, and as Curator's Eye I unequivocally states, the interest in installation has grown but is championed by only a few artists comparatively. But is it really a case where "installation and site-specific tendencies (are lurking) at the fringes of the Jamaican art scene" because fewer artists practise it?
Locally, we can all agree that painting is still the most popular medium with both traditional and more contemporary approaches continuing a parallel existence.
The more contemporary forms of painting and, by extension, installation tendencies, are sanctioned by and encouraged at Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts (EMCVPA) and explored by some artists trained abroad, while many other artists who generally fall outside of this institutional construct opt for a more traditional approach.
Certainly, when one considers that the National Gallery has played a major part in showcasing such art and that other local galleries have presented such works by interested artists, we recognise that opportunities exist for installation artists despite space constraints. As an adjunct to that, there is the challenge of finding and transforming alternative spaces.
PUBLIC EDUCATION
For those viewers unfamiliar or minimally acquainted with this kind of art, Curator's Eye I is most beneficial but only with a proactive public education plan as part of the National Gallery's thrust for the show.
One such attempt is the discussion forum with some of the artists and the curator four weeks ago. Some persons may reject the show because of lack of understanding, but intrigue may be the greatest response, therefore it would be good to capitalise on this opportunity to bridge the gap between contemporary art and the Jamaican audience.
For those among us who have had a greater number of encounters with such art and artists, the exhibition offers no significantly new or refreshing perspective on installation art in Jamaica, but perhaps such interactions with viewers would prompt further avenues of discourse.
