ART & CULTURE
CULTURE // MIAMI ART WEEK
ART WEEK M I
A
M I
WRITER MONIQUE MCINTOSH PHOTOGRAPHY SUPPLIED
THE CARIBBEAN INVASION
THE GLOBAL ART WORLD CONVERGES AGAIN IN MIAMI THIS DECEMBER, FOR THE HIGHLY ANTICIPATED ANNUAL MIAMI ART WEEK (DECEMBER 4-10), ANCHORED BY ART BASEL MIAMI, ONE OF THE MOST CELEBRATED SHOWS ON THE INTERNATIONAL ART FAIR CALENDAR.
THIS YEAR, a talented roundup of visual artists from the Caribbean and diaspora are claiming their spot in the limelight and writing a new chapter in Caribbean art. Here’s our list of this year’s stand-out contemporary Caribbean artists: JUAN LUIS PEREZ: MIAMI, CUBA EXHIBITING: RED DOT MIAMI ART FAIR With geometric angles, furious script and splotches of color, Perez, a Cuban-born, Miami-proud artist, seems to attack his broad canvases, conveying a fierce energy as acrylic, charcoal, resins and even newspaper sheets slam together in unexpected ways. “I love monochromatic tones and rough, dynamic strokes,” says Perez, “and I enjoy turning the spatula into the biggest protagonist of my work.” The abstract, rebellious approach comes naturally for the self-taught artist. It’s a similar spirit to artists who influenced him, like Julian Schnabel, Antoni Tapies and fellow Cuban José María Mijares, a friend and mentor. Perez will be showing pieces from his latest series, Fragmented Reflections, which continue this Painting: Evolution Untamed
thread, reflecting on “the evolution of our defense mechanisms in a society that lacerates us more and more.”
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NYUGEN SMITH: OF TRINIDADIAN AND HAITIAN PARENTAGE EXHIBITING: PRIZM ART FAIR nyugensmith.com Born in Jersey City, NJ, this artist has undergone a figurative and literal odyssey into his Caribbean heritage, exploring his inherited identities through mixed-media art, sculpture, installation and performance. His collages and assemblages offer a pastiche of the region’s iconography steeped in folklore and colonization, but reimagines them, breaking down their undercurrents in startling ways. Describing his creative relations with the Caribbean, “I would have to say that it’s less about a Caribbean perspective that has influenced my work, and more about my experiencing the Caribbean, with its folklore, performance, festival
Photo: performance at the Brooklyn Museum. Credit: Pascal Bernier
culture, landscape, ways of using language, and
Performance still: Performing a new flag for the Caribbean / a flag for the new
histories that have informed my practice.”
Caribbean, with Dominique Duroseau.
SHEENA ROSE: BARBADOS EXHIBITING: PRIZM ART FAIR sheenaroseart.com The future of Caribbean art shines particularly bright in the glittery neon works of this young mixed-media artist. Though a classically-trained painter and illustrator, Rose often engages in the mediums and aesthetics of this internet-loving, global age, from her animation and digital collages, to her galactic performance art series on Instagram. Her popular Sweet Gossip series seems to borrow the sardonic sensibility of memes for a cheeky take on Bajan pop culture. Her unique approach has already attracted international attention, with shows and performances at the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA), Queens Museum, Turner Contemporary and Residency Gallery. Her work however, always finds its way home, carving out a Caribbean space within a global context. “I can’t help [but] to reflect and see myself in many spaces,” says Rose. “I am from the Caribbean. I can’t help [but] see if I am similar or very different when I travel.” Painting: “So she like it”
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CULTURE // MIAMI ART WEEK
DEBORAH JACK: ST. MAARTEN EXHIBITING: PRIZM ART FAIR deborahjack.com Nothing’s more Instagram ready than the dreamy landscapes and seascapes of the Caribbean, but there’s no digital filter to reveal the complex histories that linger under the surface. We see haunting glimpses of these memories in the work of St. Maarten artist Deborah Jack. Working with audio visual installation and photography, Jack captures the beauty of the tropical flora and clear blue sea, but always finds a way to undercut these images, questioning their simplicity. Her Bounty black-and-white photo series shows the snowy piles of pure salt collected in the Bonaire Salt pans – depicting the beauty of this valuable commodity, while echoing the landscape’s unique connections to slavery. In her video installation “the water between us remembers…,” sinister soundscapes play over a young girl’s idyllic prance through the lush countryside. She carries blood-red Poinciana blooms with her, which Jack describes as invoking both “the wounds of history combined and the beauty of regeneration.”
Photo: From video installation “what is the value of water if it quenches our thirst to bloom...”
TERRY BODDIE: NEVIS EXHIBITING: PRIZM ART FAIR terryboddie.com The photography and mixed-media images of this Nevis native always feel up close and personal, offering intimate insight into the shifting cultures of the Caribbean and his adopted hometown, New York City. In his photography portrait series, the individual comes first – whether capturing quiet moments of neighborhood life in New York in romantic gelatin and silver, or chronicling the back-breaking work of Cuthbert Clarke, one of Nevis’ last remaining coal men. The same sentiment also drives his more experimental mixed-media work, as ghostly snapshots of school-boy faces loom over a painterly cosmic landscape. “The Caribbean has always been the groundation for my creative process,” notes Boddie. “Its geography, its history, my memories of place and time, are all elements that infused my work from the beginning.” Painting: The Traveler
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ARTIST AS AN
ENTREPRENEUR INSTITUTE
BUSINESS SKILLS FOR THE MODERN CREATOR FOUR-WEEKEND SEMINAR
JUNE 2 - 23, 2018
REGISTER Broward.org/Arts/Events
CONTACT James Shermer 954-357-7502 jshermer@broward.org
LOCATION ArtServe 1350 E Sunrise Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, FL 33304
Cultivate and advance your business skills over four consecutive Saturdays with AEI’s seminar. This series of 20 classes is open to South Florida artists in all creative fields.
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CULTURE // SOUNDS OF THE CARIBBEAN
HIDDEN SOUNDS OF THE
CARIBBEAN
WELL BEFORE THE JUMPING, THE WAVING, AND THE CHIPPING ON THE ROAD WEARING PRETTY COSTUMES DURING CARNIVAL SEASON, CARIBBEAN MUSIC WAS AN EXPRESSION OF OUR MOST HUMAN NEED - FREEDOM. WRITER BEKIM RAUSEO
PHOTOGRAPHY SUPPLIED
TO FULLY UNDERSTAND THE ORIGINS of Caribbean music is, first, to understand the region’s dark history.
creating guitar melodies seeped in the storytelling traditions of
During the 18th and 19th centuries, African freedom,
Africa. Twoubadou is melodic, lyrical and sinuous, with tones
throughout the islands, was strangled by the hands of colonial
that swirl over the tempo of the short slightly sporadic tapping
rule. But, in its firm grip writhed a strong and passionate people,
of drums.
discovering new forms of self expression.
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its name from the word ‘troubadour’, a medieval poet-musician
Mento hails from Jamaica. It is a delightfully mellow music,
The horrors of slavery in the Caribbean can be traced back to
and is considered the founding beat of ska and reggae, with
a time from 1662 to 1807, when a generation was yolked by
audible similarities to Trinidadian Calypso. However, Mento’s less
foreign others. Yet, out of this pitch black, events like the Haitian
aggressive treatment sets it apart from other pre-calypso genres.
Revolution of 1789 set an amber blaze that lit a path to new life
Then there’s Zouk from the French Caribbean islands, and
surrounded by the Caribbean Sea. From this rigid and oppressive
Benna, a scandalous, call-and-response, calypso-type music
hold, a vibrant people gave birth to our earliest music sounds,
from Antigua and Barbuda that held the social power to topple
expressing hope, sorrow and joy.
politicians. Quelbe, also known as scratch band music, is the very
Rara, a type of festival music, was born out of the Haitian
heartbeat of the Virgin Islands. Scratch bands perform pieces
rebellion. Twoubadou is another Haitian musical style that takes
with a briskly moving baseline, peppered on top with the delicate
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CARIBBEAN MUSIC INCLUDES AND GOES BEYOND THE DISCOGRAPHY OF KASSAV’, C DAVID RUDDER, BOB MARLEY, BARRINGTON LEVY, AND CHALKDUST.
tinkle of iron implements and the feathery sound of flutes.
cockpit country of Jamaica, and the deep green of Haiti during
Junkanoo, a p passionate music from the Bahamas, is synonymous
the 60s and 70s, reinvigorating island music as we know it today.
intonation of the “rake and scrape” resting underneath with the inton
Caribbean music includes and goes beyond the discography
big band sounds soun of blurting brass instruments, like the trumpet
of Kassav’, David Rudder, Bob Marley, Barrington Levy, and
and euphonium. euphonium
Chalkdust.
The sounds are strikingly similar yet pleasantly individual. All
The post-colonial music catalogue of the region and diaspora
these, amazing amazin yet hidden sounds that inspired and uplifted a
stretches far into the corners of recent history. Even the
people from the darkest hours of our islands’ history.
contemporary sound of Drake, Tory Lanez and Diplo owes a debt
Despite their connected origins, the distinction of each
to the score of island music’s history. Despite its rich and treacle
genre in Caribbean music is defined by nuanced sound. Simple
past, most people understand the beginnings of Caribbean music
instruments were made by hand, often from found objects
as the pastiche parade of entertainment performed in songs like
gesticulated to create simple beats. Each island was populated by
Calypso Blues by Nat King Cole.
various European rulers. Their music was influenced by Africans
But if one were to pull back the beaded curtain for a less
from multiple tribes such as the Ashanti of Ghana, Yoruba of
obscured view, one would discover the true and hidden sound
Nigeria, Imbangala of Angola, and the Nyamwezi of Tanzania,
of the region. At house parties and other family functions, in and
bringing with them their unique customs and religions. Once
around carnivals, weddings, and christenings, you will still hear
forced into the perimeters of these tiny countries, this clash of
the faint sounds of yesteryear in the music of the day enjoyed by
cultures fused together in ways that none would have expected.
those closest to its heritage.
This melange of Dutch, French, English, Spanish, Chinese,
The rebellions and riots that inspired this artistic and extremely
Indians and Africans created a kaleidoscope of sonic color that
powerful form of resistance also transformed a people and the
continued to evolve as the music shaped the identities in each
celebrations they observe to this day. From Junkanoo parades in
country.
the Bahamas, held on Boxing Day and New Year’s Day, to the
Pre-calypso Caribbean music is so much more than just songs
many iterations of carnival celebrated in Trinidad and Tobago,
about rum and coca cola, or Harry Belafonte twisting and gyrating
Jamaica, Saint Lucia, and Grenada (just to name a few), there’s
to the ping and pang of a steel drum. The decades following
no denying that today’s island music continues to resonate due
Emancipation were witness to the symbolic pongin’ and tinkering
to the jewels hidden for us in the closed fists of a people under
of the sound that was refined in the hills of Laventille Trinidad, the
pressure.
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CULTURE // STRIKE THE IRON
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THE PERFECT VENUE
TRADE SHOWS
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CULTURE // SWIMSUITS AND FEATHERS
A THOUGHTFUL CONSTRUCTION OF
SWIMSUITS &FEATHERS EACH FEBRUARY, THE BUSTLING STREETS OF PORT OF SPAIN, TRINIDAD ARE TRANSFORMED BY A SWARMING KALEIDOSCOPE OF COLORFUL SEQUINS, FEATHERS, AND GLITTERY, SWEAT-COVERED BODIES. COSTUMED REVELERS AND MASSES OF ONLOOKERS “CHIP” TO THE HEART-POUNDING RHYTHMS OF SOCA MUSIC. IT’S AN ENTRANCING SEA OF TRINI CULTURE THAT SUSPENDS ALL WORRIES, AND BIASES, EVEN JUST FOR THE DURATION OF THE CARNIVAL SEASON.
WRITER SHELLY-ANN PARKINSON PHOTOGRAPHY @ROYALEYEZ
PHOTO: JAMIE BRUCE
A FEW ISLANDS TO THE NORTHEAST, Barbadians celebrate Crop Over, a six to eight weeks-long festival culminating on the first Monday in August with a massive street parade. Masqueraders “jump” to lively soca music in a blowout fi nale on Spring Garden Highway in the capital city, Bridgetown. And, on Boxing Day (December 26) and New Year’s Day, Bahamians “rush” down Bay Street, Nassau, entranced by the Junkanoo music played with goatskin drums, horns, cowbells, conch shells, and other locally made instruments. A few years ago, they added a pre-Lenten
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celebration, the Bahamas Carnival, to their event roster. Each celebration has a different origin, but all share a common thread of colorful, meticulously designed costumes. According to media personality and carnival enthusiast Vanessa James, whose documentary Carnival to the World is set for release in 2019, during slavery “Africans were not allowed to participate in the celebrations (of their masters) and thus rioted and forged their own celebrations. They had their own festivals and made their own costumes and sent their messages (of resistance and rebellion) through the seamstresses who designed their costumes.” Participants used costumes and songs to challenge the status quo, and through satire, mocked their masters openly. Costume designers today continue to play an integral role in carnival, creating vibrant artwork with spandex and feathers, using writhing human bodies as their canvas. It is worth noting that the satire in song has also stood the test of time.
EXHIBITING ARTISTRY Costume-making for The Bahamas’ Junkanoo bands is a little different than their other Caribbean counterparts. For starters, participants—both children and adults—usually make their own costumes using cardboard and crepe paper, then decorate them with feathers, gems, and any other materials they wish, bound only by the limits of their imagination. These costumes are distinctly Ghanaian—Akan to be exact—and feature brightly colored, elaborate masks that can be fierce and whimsical. The results are often stunning. However, for the springtime carnival celebration, costume designers like Anton James provide their services. James is one of the designers of the Bahamas Masqueraders, ensuring that The Bahamas is represented in carnivals at home and abroad. He is currently creating costumes for the Wassi Ones, a Bahamian mas band that will participate in the Miami Broward Carnival in October 2018. James wants local Bahamian designers to have a fair chance to exhibit their artistry. He belives that while costumes have to be beautiful and sturdy structures, they should also be comfortable and easy to wear. Notably, Bahamian carnival costumes feature both the extravagant, bedazzled beadwork and exotic plumage of traditional French costume designs, and West African elements such as horns and cowbells.
FROM THE STAGE TO THE STREETS Brooklyn-born Bajan clothing designer Nicole Harris has outfitted reggae artists such as Tarrus Riley and Sean Paul. But four years ago she segued into carnival costume design—a natural transition since she was raised in a family from Barbados and was always playing mas (masquerade). She currently has her own section, Nsirrah, themed “Moonshine-Harlem, The Golden Age,” for the Miami Broward Carnival 2018 band Djunction Mas. Harris started planning for this year’s carnival last October, one week after the Miami celebration ended. She creates costumes for every position in the band: back line (little or no feathers), front line (bigger feathers) and a premium and extravagant costume for the section leader. Her costumes range from $300 to $1,500. She also stresses that as flamboyant as her costumes appear, they’re lightweight and allow revelers to move freely.
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