Residency Exhibition
Alice Yard, Trindad. 2025Marking the end of my 2 month Arts Council supported research residency in the Caribbean, the exhibition became a chance to connect with local audiences in Trinidad while also working through how my work-in-progress could be materialised within space.
With the generous support of Chris Cozier Chris Cozier and the whole team at Alice Yard, I was invited to take over the entire space including the ground floor gallery, upper studio space and courtyard screening area. Journeying through and into the research and public interventions I had conducted mainly across Dominica.
Central to both the gallery and studio space are hanging sculptures made from natural and found materials (banana leaves, coconut husk, calabash, driftwood, brown paper) reflect an intuitive, readymade-esque approach. The pieces are hyper-local in their connection to the post-carnival studio, where ‘leftovers’ are repurposed; their resonances with material cultures and carnival practices across the Caribbean are reanimated in homage to their power and spirit.
Handwritten quotes, painted questions and statements encourage a dialogue between the pieces, while offering insight into my research and creative process.
Contextualising art within political and social concerns - wondering where we are going and what we are building. Paintings of conch shells and Black Devil carnival figures extend on the resistive histories across the Caribbean and their inherent connections with the natural environment.
Alongside the physical installation are two video projections. The first, ‘there’s too much blood in the well’, is a 20 minute piece shot in the Old Market in Roseau, Dominica. The site where enslaved people were traded and executed while Dominica was under European colonial rule. The second, ‘pushing’ played outside in the courtyard. a 40 minute piece shot in various locations around Dominica where I push against boulders with all my strength.
Installation shots:
