OTHER TEXTS BY ANNALEE DAVIS |
Connecting, disconnecting and intersecting at the Biennial of the Americas By Annalee Davis
Connecting… Disconnecting… |
Of People and Place By Annalee Davis
I was born in the Caribbean basin at a moment of transition from British colony to independent nation state. A menagerie of people imported from the four corners of the globe, our predetermined role was to provide labour for, or manage, the agricultural economy for absentee landowners. Unusually, these societies were contrived to support the economy, creating the first globalised space in the world, right here, in the belly of the Americas. Three and a half centuries later, as newly independent states, we were given the mantle to build a vision that would support our own aspirations. Lacking an autochthonous population for the most part, many of these newly independent island states in the early sixties had no indigenous context from which to define themselves. More than four decades on, one might question the degree of success to which our vision for independence has been realized. From my location in the Southern Anglophone Caribbean, critical art as a resistant practice is transforming the contemporary creative arena though a proliferation of informal networks. Visual artists are linking with creative writers and critical thinkers to shape spaces of possibility – giving permission to make things, share ideas and provoke debate... |
IDENTITIES WITHHELD BY CHOICE June 26 - 2008 An error was made and two of the images were omitted from the printed journal. Visit the link below to see the complete project on Small Axe's website. |
Questions for Team Barbados and the Panelists on David Ellis’ Down to Brass Tacks Programme on Migration, Sunday, June 21 2009 by Annalee Davis
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Thoughts on Prime Minister Thompson’s New “Amnesty” In the Diaspora By Annalee Davis (Annalee Davis is a Barbadian Visual Artist, living and working in Barbados on a series of forty-five artistic projects that investigate the impact and anxieties of intra-regional Caribbean immigration. Please view www.creole-chant.blogspot.com to complete the questionnaire if you have a migratory experience you would like to share or www.annaleedavis.com to see her work. On Tuesday, May 6th 2009, Prime Minister David Thompson politely informed Parliament of the policy determined by the Subcommittee on Immigration set up in June 2008. Non-nationals have one month to turn themselves into Immigration to regularize their status or be “removed” from December 1 2009... read complete article here
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Hiding and Seeking with Tonya Wiles (2009) By Annalee Davis I initially saw Tonya Wiles’s work at her first solo show, which opened at the Zemicon Gallery in Bridgetown on June 7, 2009. One week later, I attended her talk at which, according to Tonya, she wanted to “explain” her body of work to the Barbadian audience. Her exhibition Hide and Seek played with established local norms about viewing art in a gallery space. I asked Tonya how different it was for her to locate her work in Barbados versus situating it in the UK, where she had spent the last three years. She felt that given the greater exposure of a UK gallery culture predisposed to understanding contemporary work, returning to Barbados forced her to ask the question, “Is art viewing universal?” She wondered if the work made sense in a Barbadian context, and we spoke about how the work functions differently in the two spaces. UK-based viewers might be well exposed to, and therefore more comfortable interacting with, objects like Tonya’s in a gallery space, whereas in the Barbadian context the work reveals a tension. Hide and Seek exposed the conformity of a small, conservative, insular island society that prefers to know the rules of the game before playing. Members of the audience, Tonya told me, not sure what to do with her work, sought explanation from her before engaging or participating. to read complete article visit smallaxe.net
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| Annalee Davis on JOSCELYN GARDNER (2004)
Tonight, I would like to speak about this exhibition as “an epiphany of showing forth” our truths and to suggest that Joscelyn Gardner is a contemporary Barbadian shaman and that this exhibition represents a watershed in our ongoing and fractured development of cultural production. It would be remiss of me as an artist not to address the technical expertise that Joscelyn so beautifully and proficiently displays. The process of physically making the work is something that Joscelyn enjoys as she very carefully renders, embroiders, writes, draws and prints these ideas into a form that is accessible to us – the thirsty audience. You should be aware that the pillow cases are made by Joscelyn, the embroidery is sewn by her hands, as are the topsy-turvy dolls. The photocopies of the prints that are hanging in the hallway pale in comparison to the limited edition, fine art lithographs that are on display at the Zemicon Gallery. Those carefully rendered drawings of black hairstyles are lithographs which are printed on frosted mylar. They are exquisitely beautiful and one should not miss the opportunity to see these works in the flesh. I particularly appreciate the idea of Joscelyn using the Museum’s galleries as her canvas. I think it is a bold and daring venture to take what is a hallowed national arena and dance around the icons that reek of status, privilege and puffed up patriarchal chests, and suggest a topsy-turvy plantation space that begins to create a language which defines this nation’s history. Instead of a static display of inanimate objects, we now have movement, sound, rhythm, and voice; we have an animated space which breathes life into our history and honours the fact, with compassion, that we are bound to the vein. The Caribbean has propagated centuries of shame around our stories. We have been taught to be uncomfortable when history shows up at the back door, stating claim to our blood line. But now, thanks to Joscelyn’s careful words and works, we have a creative language that is starting to fall from our lips, we can begin to speak about the unspeakable. Secondly, I would like to speak about schizophrenia as it relates to the works on display. Schizophrenia is a mental disease marked by disconnection between thoughts, feelings and actions. The word makes me think about madness – a disordered mind, as well as it makes me think about schism - a split, rupture or division. This show allows us to explore the tangled threads of history in an attempt to unravel the postcolonial mess we have inherited. Barbados, like the rest of the Caribbean, has been part of one of the world’s largest experiments in hybridity and its resultant creolisation. An innate part of this experience is the schism, schizophrenia or madness Joscelyn references in her catalogue by mentioning Jean Rhys’ character, Antoinette Cosway. I wanted to extend this schizophrenic schism to Joscelyn’s exhibition and suggest several areas where the splits can be seen in the works. 1. In a formal sense, the juxtaposition of what is on the surface with what is underneath – the schism between the beautifully and carefully rendered braided hair with the brutal torture implements. And finally, I would like to speak about the idea of healing as it relates to wholeness. I would like to extend this mandate to every member of our society, on both an individual and a collective basis. Healing is about making a choice. Reconstructing, or rebuilding our identity puts us in a position of power. This exhibition provokes us to think about the construction of our future in relation to our past, and some of the questions that we may ask are; how do we move forward, what is our next move? What steps have been taken by our postcolonial government to heal the wounds and move beyond the cycle of guilt and the polarity of superiority/inferiority complexes? How different or similar are we as a society today from the society to which Joscelyn refers in her work? Nations can make steps towards healing which recognize at the national level that there has been rupture and we need to heal. Some examples of this at the national level are seen by the USA who created Affirmative Action as a healing mechanism. South Africa had their Truth & Reconciliation effort. Many Caribbean islands have become independent and some have become republics. Free education for all, is another step towards healing. Barbados formed a Committee for National Reconciliation in 1999 which has produced a report with suggestions for ways in which we can heal as a nation and move forward. This exhibition is an individual effort at healing which has been offered as a national gift for others to heal as well. I wonder if the notion of healing, becoming whole beings who are healthy, happy and successful is a choice that is truly unspeakable. Are we willing as individuals to heal and to become whole? Do we have a government that can choose to heal the wound and close the gaps? I would like to close my presentation by recalling an article I read a few years ago when South Africa was undergoing their Truth & Reconciliation exercises. There was a story about a poor black SA woman from one of the townships who was in court at the trial of a white SA policeman who had brutally murdered her husband and only son in the most heinous way. The judge asked her to offer her comments about how this man should pay for what he had done to her family. She stood in the courtroom and she said; firstly, I want to forgive you. Secondly, I want you to come and visit me every month, because you have taken away my entire family and I need someone to spend time with me. And thirdly I want to adopt you as my son, because I have none left. The policeman feinted at the stand. That woman, on that day, as an individual, demonstrated wholeness. And her leader, Nelson Mandela was a national example to her, as a whole person. This is the unspeakable truth. To be whole is unspeakable. In a society that is heavily rooted in values which are oriented towards an external saviour, it is a challenging notion for many to think about taking the responsibility to claim a power to save themselves. To affirm; This is speaking the unspeakable. |
Just Beyond My Imagination
Current regional debate on the issue of intra-regional migration is expanding the discussion and forcing us to address some of the more complex issues surrounding the state of the CSME and intra-regional Caribbean migration. Given statements made by some of the panelists on Sunday’s Brass Tacks and in the Sunday Sun of the same date, where our Prime Minister denied knowledge of ‘house raids’ in Barbados, I thought it would be useful to pose questions to the panel, the relevant authorities and Team Barbados, in an effort to further contribute to the debate. 
