C0845 JourneyCat_AW.indd - The Barbados National Art Gallery

Journey: Emancipation of the Spirit
is a publication of the National Art Gallery Committee.
Curator: Janice Whittle.
Assistant Curator: Nerys Rudder
Copyright © 2007 National Art Gallery Committee.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, whether electronic, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the authors or publishers.
Cover Photograph: Detail of ‘Passage’ by Eric Belgrave
Layout & photography by won ([email protected])
Printed in Barbados by COT Caribbean Graphics.
INTRODUCTION
BY THE CHAIRPERSON
OF THE NATIONAL
ART GALLERY
COMMITTEE
In marking the bicentenary of the 1807 Abolition of the Slave Trade, the National
Art Gallery Committee seeks to address ICOM’s theme for International Museum
Day “Museums and Universal Heritage” in a familiar and relevant context which
encourages alternative approaches to traditional historiographies and which expands
our understanding of the shared (indeed universal) heritage which is the bedrock for the
cultural landscape in which we continue to negotiate the relationship between our past
and our present.
As the Committee’s second major event for 2007, and as continuation of our developing
partnerships with the National Cultural Foundation, Zemicon Gallery and the new Errol Barrow
Centre for the Creative Imagination, this exhibition examines and commemorates the broader,
longer term impact and the legacy of both the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and the resulting system of
plantation slavery, in which the Barbadian/Caribbean struggle for freedom and human rights can be
appropriately contextualized for a contemporary globalized world.
Both the works themselves and indeed the whole construction and organization of the exhibit serve
as testimony to our deeper recognition of both the durability of memory and of the irremediable
loss which resulted from the plundering and the destruction of the cultural inheritance of African
peoples, depriving not only that great continent, but the whole of humanity and all the future
generations of this legacy.
We need to emphasize the extreme consequences not only of the loss of cultural patrimony, which
stands as shared testimony not only to this inequitable past, but also of the dispossession of
identity which is one of “the lasting effects of slavery …. [and] that the repercussions of the slave
trade and slavery resonate down through the centuries – … some of those effects include racism,
poverty and conflict in Africa and the Caribbean.”1
Many of these works both directly and indirectly, address this culturally interwoven heritage and
help to give voice to the unspoken. The process of deconstructing and reconstructing our history
through the eyes of our artists seeks to move away from those who perceive the Act and the end of
slavery in the British Empire from the dominant narrative of Western History, as opposed to various
other perspectives such as that of black abolitionists, Caribbean protagonists and the actions of the
enslaved themselves, often unspoken and usually unheralded.
The Bicentenary thus serves as an occasion to recognize and acknowledge the complexities
and density of historical realities which too often are simplified in symbolic commemoration.
The Committee’s 5th annual exhibition commemorating the 2007 Bicentenary provides a
welcome opportunity to work with a broad range of artists and institutions for the exhibition and
interpretation of the meaning and context of this major event, through works which reflect the
trials, tribulations and triumphs of the Barbadian slave in the context of the Slave trade and the
implications of its legacy in the 21st Century.
Alissandra Cummins
Chairperson
National Art Gallery Committee
26th April, 2007
1
Reflecting on the past and looking to the future: The 2007 Bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade in
the British Empire, DCMS, March 2006.
1
The Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill
Campus, is pleased to join with the National Art Gallery Committee and the National Cultural
Foundation in this collaborative exhibition to highlight the importance of the 200th anniversary of
abolition of the international slave trade. Estimates of the numbers of Africans transported across
the Atlantic range from 15 million to 30 million Africans, with significant numbers of horrific deaths.
This commemoration recalls the horrors of the enslavement of Africans, the dehumanisation of
societies and the brave resistance struggle for freedom and justice. It also implores each citizen
to be ever vigilant in light of contemporary instances of slavery, oppression and injustice, which
remind us of the need to constantly safeguard freedom and to protect the rights of the vulnerable
and dispossessed. This collaborative exhibition seeks to increase awareness of the causes and
impact of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade through a focus on selected artwork and artefacts. The
participation of the Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination in this exhibition reflects its
commitment to art that speaks to community concerns and an aesthetic that displays core values
of creativity, social justice and freedom.
Professor Gladstone Yearwood
Director
Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination
2
STATEMENT
BY THE DIRECTOR
OF THE ERROL
BARROW CENTRE
FOR CREATIVE
IMAGINATION
STATEMENT
BY THE CHIEF
EXECUTIVE
OFFICER OF THE
NATIONAL CULTURAL
FOUNDATION
The Arts have always been a force for healing and enlightenment. The genocide that was the
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade continues to impact on our world today. In this year, 2007, in Africa,
the United Kingdom and the Caribbean, we commemorate the Bicentenary of the Abolition of
the Slave Trade in the British colonies on March 25th and throughout the year. On March 6th the
African Diaspora celebrated fifty years of Ghanaian Independence.
It is fitting that our commemoration of the Bicentenary should include a celebration of creativity
in the Visual Arts. The Natural Cultural Foundation is pleased to expand the collaboration with the
National Art Gallery Committee on the May exhibition at the Queen’s Park Gallery to include the
Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination. For several years it has been conceptualized and
coordinated by the National Art Gallery Committee. Although we do not yet have a National Gallery
building, the National Art Gallery Committee has exposed the public to works in the collection and
generated interest in the Visual Arts through their activities.
It is in a way symbolic that on this theme three organizations are cooperating. The exhibition is
also regional in the scope of the work on display. We have African sculptures, as well as thematic
responses by some of our contemporary Masters. It is evident from some of the work, that the
oppression through an economic hierarchy continues into the twenty-first century. The Arts are a
healing force, raising questions and providing visual and intellectual stimulation. Despite living in a
visually stunning environment, we are least confident in responding to the Visual Arts. Exhibitions,
such as this one, with catalogues giving guidance, will contribute to deepening our understanding of
the Art of our countries.
T. H. Ian Estwick
Chief Executive Officer
National Cultural Foundation
3
A CENTRAL CONCEPT in the culture of the Xhosa-speaking people and in the Bantu
tradition in general, is Ubuntu or Fraternity. The focus of this concept is compassion
and open-mindedness as opposed to egotism and individualism. Ubuntu was a guiding
philosophy in the life of Nelson Mandela. The manifesto of the ANC’s Youth League
founded in 1944 underscores that the African, in contrast to the European, regards the
universe as an organic whole in progress towards a harmonious unit, where individual
components exist only as aspects of this entity. Ubuntu was again central to the South
African Constitution of 1996.
OMOWALE STEWART
East Coast First Light
n.d.
Acrylic on Canvas
30.5 x 40.5 cm
Artist’s Collection
5
THIS SENSE OF OURSELVES as part of a unit
was an essential part of Barbadian life in the
1950s and 60s. We were our neighbour’s keeper.
We in the Caribbean are the sum of many parts,
with the dominant influence coming from Africa
as a result of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. The
African spirit lives on in the way we do things and
what we do: the Barbados Landship; the Spiritual
Baptist Church; our family structures; our woodcarving and furniture tradition. These are simply a
few examples.
The exhibition, ‘Journey: Emancipation of
the Spirit’, focuses on some of the African
inheritances and challenges resulting from the
Slave Trade. I have deliberately not focused on
the genocide that was Slavery, but the links to
Africa and Europe that produced the Caribbean.
C.L.R. James has been at times vilified for his
statement,
“But I respect the learning and profound
discoveries of western civilization.”
We cannot pretend that there were no positive
outcomes from the European influence on
Barbadian society. In the post-seventies society,
to be radical has come to mean “the rejection of
all that is ‘Western’ in the name of marginality
or difference….The irony is that the politics of
identity itself draw on the most reactionary of
ideas – the claim that one’s political beliefs and
ways of thinking should be derived from the facts
of one’s birth, sex or ethnic origins.” (Kenan
Malik). This is indeed the opposite of Ubuntu.
I have continued the concept of the many parts
of an organic whole in the organization of the
exhibition at three sites. To choose three sites for
the exhibition expands the realm of possibilities
in viewing the work, as well as allowing for the
localizing of themes. The Queen’s Park Gallery
site presents an overview of the ideas being
explored in the exhibition as a whole. The image
of the Atlantic in Eric Belgrave’s photograph
6
‘Passage’ shows a rough sea with resistant dark
rocks holding their heads above the water. This is
a powerful metaphor for the true grit, the stoicism
and resistance that characterized our survival of
Slavery.
ERIC BELGRAVE
Passage
2002
Gelatin Photograph
40.5 x 50.5 cm
National Art Gallery Committee Collection
‘THE EMANCIPATION’ SERIES by Edmund Gill is not shown
in full, but is represented by the three panels; ‘Revolt and
Emancipation’; ‘Independence’ and ‘Re-Assertion’. The
series culminates in ‘Re-Assertion’ with the Sphinx and the
Pyramids, and shows our evolution as a Caribbean people in
embracing our history.
EDMUND GILL
Revolt and Emancipation
1996-1999
From the Emancipation Series
Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas
106.5 x 76 cm
National Collection
7
8
EDMUND GILL
Independence
EDMUND GILL
Reassertion
1996-1999 | From the Emancipation Series
Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas | 106.5 x 76 cm
National Collection
1996-1999 | From the Emancipation Series
Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas | 106.5 x 76 cm
National Collection
JOYCE DANIEL’S ‘SURVIVAL’ has the central figure of a longsuffering Mother linked conceptually to the ‘Mother Pik’. Both
have that sense of an organic whole, supporting families,
plant life and indeed a whole village.
JOYCE DANIEL
Survival
n.d.
Mixed Media on Canvas
178.5 x 114.5 cm
National Art Gallery Committee Collection
9
These are mixed-media pieces incorporating leather, wax
and acrylic paint. The artist is influenced by her extensive
collection of African art in her approach to mixed media in
incorporating leather into her work in such a unique way.
In the phrase of Prof. Kamau Brathwaite, Daniel may be
said to have employed “a jazz aesthetic”, relying heavily on
improvisation.
JOYCE DANIEL
Mother Pik
1989
Mixed Media Assemblage
47 x 94 cm
Artist’s Collection
10
RAS ISHI BUTCHER’S ‘400 Years: New World Order’ is a monumental work of epic scale.
It arose out of President George Bush Sr.’s statement: “We are moving to a New World
Order!” His statement was repeated five times to thunderous applause in an address to
the United Nations in September 1990. The concept of a “New World Order” of which
President Bush Sr. spoke would involve an alliance between the industrialized nations
of Europe, the United States and Japan, effectively creating a single world government
through their technological might and wealth. This New World Order would continue to
marginalize developing countries such as Barbados.
In Ishi’s painting there is a figure in a white “tropical” suit and a white pith helmet in a
landscape. The message is clear.
RAS ISHI BUTCHER
400 Years: New World Order (Diptych)
1994
Oil on Canvas
122 x 274 cm
Private Collection
11
IN A WAY, Aubrey Williams suffered from the New World Order of the Art world, which is
challenged more and more by events such as the São Paulo Bienal. Initially, Williams’
abstract work received positive critical feedback and some success in the London art
scene of the fifties and sixties. After a while, he was marginalized as “a Caribbean artist”
with his exhibitions ignored, instead of being part of the critical discourse on British
abstraction. Although he was socially part of the London intellectual and art scene, the
burgeoning market
in contemporary art
was structured along
the hierarchies of
economic power and
his contribution was
obscured. Williams
‘Cacique’ was part
of the art collection
of President Forbes
Burnham of Guyana:
the artist has written
“For the President” on
the back of the canvas.
In the catalogue
to accompany an
exhibition, ‘Aubrey
Williams’, at the
Whitechapel Art Gallery
in 1998, Guy Brett
writes of the presence
AUBREY WILLIAMS
Cacique
1973
Acrylic on Canvas
92 x 121 cm
Private Collection
12
of Pre-Columbian motifs in the work of Aubrey Williams:
“His work appears to be an investigation of the Pre-Columbian legacy that a painter, not
a scientist, would make: a deconstruction refusing to take the given as fixed and final,
dismembering and re-assembling the components. There is the continuous sense of
melt-down, of chaotic turmoil, but also of germination, growth and construction.”
Arthur Atkinson is an artist who, like Aubrey Williams, works simultaneously in a
figurative and abstract way. ‘Tuk Band Celebrations’ is an abstracted version of tuk band
players, suggesting a simplification based on African masks via the Cubists. Today the
tuk band is seen largely in tourist settings or at “cultural” events such as Crop Over.
The original function of these bands was to perform in the streets of town and country
especially on a bank holiday and
celebrations such as Christmas.
is dominated with strong vertical palms which are constructed with overlayings of
splattered paint. To their left, the fruit of the palm, Veitchia Merrilli, are transformed from
the delicate washes we observed in ‘Last Day in the Country’ 1987, into a vibrant pulsing
sphere of cosmic energy. It occupies a space directly below the darkened celestial body
as though it has descended to create magic in the gully below.”
Although the composition appears
quite static one can almost hear the
band; the whistle is blown and the
drum reverberates throughout the
composition. Many of the painterly
markings are reminiscent of those
found in African carvings and
textiles.
IN HIS CATALOGUE ESSAY for Alison
Chapman-Andrews’ exhibition, ‘Sugar
Hill Gully’, in 1997, critic Nick Whittle
states;
“‘Revolving by Moonshine’ is a
richly textured work which suggests
the passage of time. The right
hand section of the composition
ALISON CHAPMAN-ANDREWS
Revolving by Moonshine
1994
Acrylic on Canvas
152 x 122 cm
Private Collection
13
GURU’S ‘ANCESTRAL GUARDIAN’ utilizes a familiar image
of the Emperor Haile Selassie I in his ceremonial robes and
places it in an altar surrounded by offerings, as one would
find in Santeria and Candomble. We pay homage to the
Ancestor to guarantee our own protection. The drawing is
meticulous and results in a very atmospheric painting.
GURU (DAVID MCCLEAN)
Ancestral Guardian
2005
Acrylic on Canvas
76 x 50 cm
National Art Gallery Committee Collection
14
OMOWALE STEWART’S ‘Facing the Sun’ is a portrait of a
confident, beautiful black woman, seated facing the light.
Omowale, like the sculptor Karl Broodhagen, celebrated the
physical attributes of black people. Whereas Broodhagen,
like the Dutch seventeenth century portrait painters, was
intrigued by individuality, Stewart is mesmerized by beautiful
black women. He delights in portraying these sensuous
Caribbean women much as Gauguin enjoyed the Tahitians,
but Stewart is not depicting an exotic other. His is a
statement celebrating identity and pride.
At the Zemicon Gallery, Identity is the theme of Nick Whittle,
Ewan Atkinson, Philip Moore, Annalee Davis and Francis
Griffith. Griffith and Davis look at identity with country: ‘I find
solace in the Trident’ by Davis and ‘Barbados Barbados’
by Griffith. Annalee Davis’ work recalls other work on this
theme, such as ’My Friend said I was Too White’, where she is
Barbadian but not Barbadian enough because of the colour
of her skin. According to Veerle Poupeye in Caribbean Art,
Davis’s work explores the fact that “the land of Barbados that
was once transformed from forest to sugar-cane fields and
now in turn to tourist resorts and golf courses.”
Francis Griffith’s ‘Barbados Barbados’ conveys a nostalgia. He
was well traveled through his many years at sea, which may
be seen in his paintings of Egypt, Russia and other distant
lands. He returned to Barbados after an absence of more
than twenty years. Griffith adopted the artist’s name ‘Son
et Lumiere’, with which he signified his early work in Egypt
during the 1960s. He explained “We cannot live in a world of
darkness. If we see the light we must record it and keep it for
others to see.” Griffith’s world, like Philip Moore, creates his
own mysterious visions.
OMOWALE STEWART
Facing the Sun
1996
Acrylic on Canvas
Artist’s Collection
15
“FULL FATHOM FIVE thy father lies, of his bones are coral made.” (Shakespeare: ‘The
Tempest’)
Nick Whittle’s polytych, ‘Full Fathom Five’, makes reference to the quotation from ‘The
Tempest’ and themes of otherness, identity and colonialism, which are pertinent to
Whittle’s oeuvre and the play. This series examines how the colonial experience has
NICK WHITTLE
Full Fathom Five (Polytych)
1996
Mixed Media on Paper
76 x 56 cm each
National Art Gallery Committee Collection
16
impacted on how we respond to a person’s race and what we project about who they are.
The artist feels the burden of the past, where the white colonizers raped the conquered
land with the phallus as a symbol of this penetration. Living in a predominantly black
country, Whittle, a white Englishman, becomes always “the other”, as black people do in
predominantly white countries.
EWAN ATKINSON’S TRIPTYCH, ‘Personality Disorder Machine’ addresses a concern that
permeates the artist’s work: the right of individuality, as opposed to being a carbon copy
of everyone else. Identity is addressed through race and gender with the artist’s own
self-portrait being present in two of the panels and obscured in the third by a “wallpaper”
of identical figures. This “wallpaper” is hardly visible in the left panel and increases from
the left to the right panels.
EWAN ATKINSON
Personality Disorder Machine (Triptych)
2004
Mixed Media on Paper
77 x 57 cm each
National Art Gallery Committee Collection
17
PHILIP MOORE IS one of the Masters of Caribbean Art. His work appears to come from
someplace deep within his soul. He is a mystic, but at the same time, very down to
earth. ‘Old Gods Can’t Die’ conveys its message in typical Moore fashion, through written
messages and images. Essential to this treatise on Self is the idea that We are God and
God is Us: “God Man Man God”; “Mighty Image and Kinship”; “I am Me”; “Soul”; “There
is a Spirit in Man’s Soul”; “Deep Sleep Brings Wisdom”.
PHILIP MOORE
Old Gods Can’t Die
1991
Acrylic on Canvas
125 x 140 cm
Private Collection
18
ONE OF THE GREAT gifts of Africa to the world is the relationship that seems to exist
between Africans and wood. In all cases, the antique masks and sculptures which
we admire so much for their aesthetic qualities, were utilitarian, because they were
often created for use in the rituals of the society. Our African ancestors brought these
extraordinary skills with them, but were forbidden to practice their religions and most of
their other cultural activities in the suppression of their traditions by the colonial powers.
In Barbados the woodcarving skills were utilized on the plantations as carpentry and in
the production of unique furniture and church decoration.
If sculptures were made by the enslaved Africans, I believe they remain lost to us.
In the midst of the contemporary Caribbean sculpture at the Errol Barrow Centre
for Creative Imagination, there are some pieces such as the Songye mask with its
geometric incisions and the Batchokwe mask, which always has
attachments of leather, straw and fabric. We cannot help
but be struck by the power of these fine heads.
Luba/Songye Mask
circa 1860-1890
Zaire (Democratic Republic of Congo)
Wood
Private Collection
Ashanti Female Doll
circa 1860-1890
Ghana
Wood Sculpture
Private Collection
Batchokwe Mask
circa 1860-1890
Zaire (Democratic Republic
of Congo)/Angola
Mixed Media
Private Collection
19
BOTH JASON HOPE and Kenneth Blackman’s elegant female busts are examples of a celebration
of Blackness and the African influence on the Diaspora in the hairstyle. The colonial experience
created a dissatisfaction among blacks with our appearance and a hierarchy of skin tone took hold
until the Black Consciousness movement of the 1960s changed all of that. This is a sculptural
response to a similar theme examined in the work of Omowale Stewart.
JASON HOPE
Bust of a Woman
n.d.
Man Made Material Sculpture
40.5 x 51 cm
Private Collection
KENNETH BLACKMAN
Corkscrew Girl
n.d.
Mahogany Wood Sculpture
35.5 x 25.5 cm
Private Collection
20
PHILIP MOORE
Reparation
n.d. | Mixed Media Sculpture Installation
103 x 60 cm | National Art Gallery Committee Collection
PHILIP MOORE’S SCULPTURES, ‘Reparation’, ‘Yellow Pails and Ball Bearings’ and ‘Mini Bus
Symphony’ are all telling a story. ‘Reparation’ is Moore’s statement on the compensation to be paid
to the descendants of the enslaved for the wrongs done to them. He uses the cardboard barrel,
which is sent by relatives in cities such as New York and London to help their family members at
home in the Caribbean with clothing and food, as the basis of this sculpture.
Moore’s saman wood relief is painted and includes some mixed media elements in the ‘Mini Bus
Symphony’. It is arranged as a mandala, but reminds one of a bottle cap. It speaks of the traffic
problems with the minibuses with names of the buses around the sides of the relief.
In our bureaucratic colonial legacy, everything is centralized. In this relief also, everything converges
on the centre and right in the middle is a Rasta man!
PHILIP MOORE
Mini Bus Symphony
1996
Mixed Media Sculpture
89 cm Diameter
Private Collection
21
Philip Moore constantly complained to his friend, the architect Mervyn Awon, about the
lack of running water in his village, which necessitated journeys to neighbouring villages
for water. The government had been promising to rectify the situation for many years:
Mervyn suggested he produce a painting about it. ‘Yellow Pails and Ball Bearings’ is
Moore’s narrative on that situation. The relief is designed as a checkerboard of images.
In some parts of West Africa, the checkerboard design represents activities in the
material world. The lack of running water brings out the ingenuity of the villagers. Mike
is a village entrepreneur who has a donkey and brings back water to the village to sell.
We see the women travelling in pairs on foot at night to the nearest village to fetch water.
Some inventive villagers made a scooter to transport the pails, hence the title of the
piece.
As always, there are words. The very British names of the “water villages”: Lancaster
and Livingstone are two. When asked what he would do about the situation, Moore’s
response was “Grin and bear it” and these words are written into the relief.
PHILIP MOORE
Yellow Pails and Ball Bearings
1994 | Mixed Media Sculpture/Relief
52 x 94 cm | Private Collection
22
The use of words in the visual is integral to Moore’s creative expression. In ‘Culture
Centre’, he lists the plays which were performed at the Centre. He represents in the
painting all the cultures of Guyana and, at the base of the painting, the greenheart piles
are presented as people. It is the people who maintain and support the Centre and by
extension the Arts in general. This symbolism is also seen in ‘Bridge of the Diaspora’,
where Mother Africa is the central figure.
PHILIP MOORE
Culture Centre
1996
Acrylic on Canvas
Private Collection
23
RAS AKYEM’S ‘Blakk King Ascending’ has a monumental
image of the Emperor Haile Selassie I rising in an echo of the
Christian paintings of the Risen Christ. To many Blacks in the
Diaspora, Africa is a place of the Spirit like Heaven with the
attendant associations of being finally at one with ourselves
and our universe. This is a very richly visual piece with very
evocative brushstrokes and mark-making in general. Like
Moore and in the graffiti tradition of Basquiat, there are words
written into the canvas: “Negus”, “Animal”, “Butch”, “Black
Rose”. Here the Blakk King’s huge phallus is his rod of power
topped with the adinkra symbol, Aya, which means “I am not
afraid of you, I am independent of you”: this is a symbol of
defiance.
RAS AKYEM RAMSAY
Blakk King Ascending
1995
Acrylic on Canvas
Private Collection
24
ANN RUDDER’S ‘SANKOFA’ and ‘Old Doll’ are fibre art pieces, which do have conceptual
links with the African American quilts tradition, where stories are told through quilting
and appliqué.
ANN RUDDER
Sankofa
1998
Mixed Media Assemblage
92 x 122 cm
Private collection
25
Old Doll worked for one of the pioneers of the Abolitionist
movement in Barbados, Sir John Gay Alleyne. In this panel her
life is celebrated. In both ‘Old Doll’ and ‘Sankofa’, the artist
uses textiles to great effect to tell her story.
ANN RUDDER
Old Doll
2002
Mixed Media Assemblage
61 x 92 cm
Private collection
26
TEXTILES OFTEN REVEAL a great deal about a people. Queen Victoria, who ruled the
British Empire for sixty-four years, greatly admired the Scottish tartan, which she helped
to popularize outside of Scotland. The tartan design was reinvented in the Empire as
the madras, the ultimate colonial fabric. It has appeared as the national dress in many
Caribbean countries and versions of it are to be found as celebration cloths in African
countries, such as Niger, and the Maroons of Suriname.
The madras links the colony and the colonizer in Nick Whittle’s ‘Memories of Landscape
II’. This is part of a series, where
the composition is a woven image
as in a madras. There are actual
pieces of cloth, brilliantly woven
into images of the stones of the Atlantic coast of Barbados, as well as the waves of the
sea, the monkey pot, the green lawns of England and maps of areas of Barbados of
significance to the Artist.
This could be described as a “stream of consciousness” painting, where the Artist’s life
is woven together through his memories and present life. The overall effect is sunny
and a celebration in contrast to ‘Full Fathom Five’ where despite the colour, the mood is
somber.
NICK WHITTLE
Memories of Landscape
2001
Mixed Media on Paper
147 x 110.5 cm
Artist’s Collection
27
ANDREW IFEANYI ISIGUZO in ‘African Culture and Symbolism: A
Rediscovery of the Seam of Fragmented Identity’ quotes from Deena
Metzger’s book, “Writing for Your Life”, where she states that “self
discovery is more than gathering information about oneself.” She
continues, “In the process of... discovering our story, we restore those
parts of ourselves that have been scattered, hidden, suppressed,
denied, distorted, forbidden, and we come to understand that stories
heal.” Since time immemorial, individuals and communities have
turned to the arts for a sense of identity and history. It is through the
arts that many still find a map to self-discovery. Given the nature of
man as a cultural animal, man is able to make representations of
his cultural identity through symbols in form of arts, language, myth,
rituals, names, to mention but a few.’’
This expresses very succinctly what we have attempted to accomplish
in ‘Journey: Emancipation of the Spirit’.
JANICE WHITTLE
Curator
Acknowledgements
The National Art Gallery Committee wishes to the thank the following;
The Barbados Gallery of Art
The Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination
The Commission for Pan African Affairs
The Culture Section, Prime Minister’s Office
The National Cultural Foundation
The Zemicon Gallery
Professor Kamau Brathwaite
Mr. Mervyn Awon
Ms. Nel Bretney
Mrs. Joyce Daniel
Mr. Omowale Stewart
Mr. Ian Walcott
Mr. Nicholas Whittle
Ms. Ena Harvey
28
Exhibition List
Artist, Title, Date, Media, Dimensions, Collection
ERROL BARROW CENTRE FOR CREATIVE IMAGINATION
Eko/Ibibio Mask, Circa 1860-1890, Nigeria, Mixed Media, Private Collection
Batchokwe Mask, Circa 1860-1890, Zaire (Democratic Republic Of Congo)/Angola, Mixed Media, Private
Collection
Idoma (Twin-Faced) Mask, Circa 1860-1890, Nigeria, Mixed Media, Private Collection
Luba/Songye Mask, Circa 1860-1890, Zaire (Democratic Republic Of Congo), Wood, Private Collection
Guro Heddle Pulley, Circa 1860-1890, Côte D’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Wood Spindle, Private Collection
Baule Heddle Pulley, Circa 1860-1890, Côte D’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Wood Spindle, Private Collection
Epa Tribe Headdress, Circa 1860-1890, Wood Sculpture, Private Collection
Ashanti Female Doll, Circa 1860-1890, Ghana, Wood Sculpture, Private Collection
Kenneth Blackman, Corkscrew Girl, n.d., Mahogany Wood Sculpture, 35.5 X 25.5 cm, Private Collection
Jason Hope, Bust Of A Woman, n.d., Man Made Material Sculpture, 40.5 X 51 cm, Private Collection
Philip Moore, Reparation, n.d., Mixed Media, Sculpture Installation, 103 X 60 cm, National Art Gallery
Committee Collection
Philip Moore, Yellow Pails And Ball Bearings, 1994, Mixed Media Sculpture/Relief, 52 X 94 cm, Private
Collection
Philip Moore, Mini Bus Symphony, 1996, Mixed Media Sculpture, 89 cm Diameter, Private Collection
Philip Moore, Culture Centre, 1996, Acrylic on Canvas, Private Collection
Philip Moore, Bridge Of The Diaspora, 1994, Acrylic on Canvas, 122 X 140 cm, Private Collection
Ann Rudder, Sankofa, 1998, Mixed Media Assemblage, 92 X 122 cm, Private Collection
Ann Rudder, Old Doll, 2002, Mixed Media Assemblage, 61 X 92 cm, Private Collection
Joyce Daniel, Mother Pik, 1989, Mixed Media Assemblage, 47 X 94 cm, Artist’s Collection
Nick Whittle, Memories Of Landscape, 2001, Mixed Media on Paper, 147 X 110.5 cm, Artist’s Collection
Ras Akyem Ramsay, Blakk King Ascending, 1995, Acrylic on Canvas, Private Collection
ZEMICON GALLERY
Nick Whittle, Full Fathom Five (Polytych), 1996, Mixed Media on Paper, 76 X 56 cm each, National Art
Gallery Committee Collection
Ewan Atkinson, Personality Disorder Machine (Triptych), 2004, Mixed Media on Paper, 77 X 57 cm each,
National Art Gallery Committee Collection
Philip Moore, Old Gods Can’t Die, 1991, Acrylic on Canvas, 125 X 140 cm, Private Collection
Annalee Davis, I Find Solace In The Trident, n.d., Mixed Media on Paper, 72 X 60 cm, Barbados Gallery of
Art Collection
Francis Griffith, Barbados Barbados, n.d., Oil on Board, 56 X 60 cm, Barbados Gallery of Art Collection
QUEEN’S PARK GALLERY
Edmund Gill, Revolt and Emancipation, 1996-1999, From the Emancipation Series, Acrylic and Mixed
Media on Canvas, 106.5 X 76 cm, National Collection
Edmund Gill, Independence, 1996-1999, From the Emancipation Series, Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas, 106.5 X 76 cm, National Collection
Edmund Gill, Reassertion, 1996-1999, From the Emancipation Series, Acrylic and Mixed Media on Canvas, 106.5 X 76 cm, National Collection
Ras Ishi Butcher, 400 Years - New World Order (Diptych), 1994, Oil on Canvas, 122 X 274 cm, Private Collection
Joyce Daniel, Survival, n.d., Mixed Media on Canvas, 178.5 X 114.5 cm, National Art Gallery Committee Collection
Arthur Atkinson, Tuk Bank Celebration, 1974, Acrylic on Canvas, 81 X 101 cm, Barbados Gallery of Art Collection
Eric Belgrave, Passage, 2002, Gelatin Photograph, 40.5 X 50.5 cm, National Art Gallery Committee Collection
Alison Chapman-Andrews, Revolving By Moonshine, 1994, Acrylic on Canvas, 152 X 122 cm, Private Collection
Guru (David McClean), Ancestral Guardian, 2005, Acrylic on Canvas, 76 X 50 cm, National Art Gallery Committee Collection
Wedgwood Commemorative Compotier, 1957, To Mark the 150th Anniversary of the Passing in British Parliament of the Abolition of the Slavery Act 1833, Ceramic, Private Collection
Omowale Stewart, East Coast First Light, n.d., Acrylic on Canvas, 30.5 X 40.5 cm, Artist’s Collection
Omowale Stewart, Facing The Sun, n.d., Acrylic on Canvas, Artist’s Collection
Aubrey Williams, Cacique, 1973, Acrylic on Canvas, 92 X 121 cm, Private Collection
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