Jamaica International Cultural Arts Exchange 2009

This year represents Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator’s tenth year of International Cultural Exchange. Conceived by Gallery Founder and Director Rosie Gordon-Wallace, the cultural arts exchange is an innovative program that brings together artists, curators, writers and cultural workers to engage in a rigorous program of exchange, exhibition, studio visits and workshop intensives in the Caribbean Diaspora and beyond. The theme of this year’s exchange is ‘Living Sculpture’. Artists have been invited to Jamaica to explore and engage sculpture, performance, installation and site-specific works that consider the significance of the body in both the creation and the content of the art, as well as the importance of public art as a means of engaging community and defining the language of a culture.

Participating artists, writers, curators, and culture-makers represent an incredible range of cultural backgrounds, nationalities, homelands and artistic practices. And the rollcall:

Carlos Alejandro, Artist

Jacquenette Arnette, Artist

Carol Campbell, Director/Curator, Revolution Gallery

Margaret Chen, Faculty, Sculpture, Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts

Jean Chiang, Artist

Rozi Chung, Faculty, Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts

Alejandro Contreras, Artist

Israel Delmonte, Faculty, Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts

Lorna Dunkley, Arts Event Coordinator

Ermán, Artist

Stella Gonzalez, Artist Coordinator

Rosie Gordon-Wallace, Director/Curator, Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator

Annie Hamilton, Dean, Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts

Marlon Hill, Esq, Featured Presenter

Deborah Jack, Artist

Rodney Jackson, Artist

Benari Kamau, Artist

Pat Kendrick, Faculty, Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts

Aaron Ledos, Artist

Jenni Lewin-Turner, Urban Cultural Scholar

Petrona Morrison, Director, Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts

Gordon Myers, Musician

Nishan, Artist

Wura-Natasha Ogunji, Artist

Veerle Poupeye, Curator, Art Historian

Danny Ramirez, Artist

Michelle Ramlagan, PhD, Scholar

Patricia Roldan, Artist

Marie Segree, Artist

Omar Tavares, Artist

Roy Wallace, Installation Designer

Indygo Williams, Photographer

Director Rosie Gordon-Wallace has described the exchange as an opportunity ‘to have a conversation with ourselves, about ourselves.’ The ICE program interprets the ‘ourselves’ in the most expansive way, engaging the concept of ‘diaspora’ as a way to understand and dialogue about the deeply creative and innovative ways that we approach artmaking, culture and community engagement.

Photo Gallery and Diasporic Journal: Day One: April 2nd

A moment to savor: the safe arrival of the art

Kingston welcomes us

Otaheite Apples for the seaside ride, courtesy of Lorna Dunkley, Arts Event Coordinator

The beautiful, brilliant Rosie Gordon-Wallace

We arrive at Revolution Gallery.

Revolution Gallery is located in a beautiful great house that has been converted into a gallery. Sculptural works greet visitors as they enter the exhibition space.

Jamaican Breakfast at Revolution Gallery, hosted by Director Carol Campbell

Next, we depart for Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, a host site for the International Cultural Exchange. The afternoon is filled with studio visits and classroom dialogues.

Public art graces the architecture, by Stefan Clarke, Sculptor and Edna Manley Graduate

Sculpture by Warren Buckle, Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts

We were moved and honored to visit the studio of fourth-year student and Sculptor, Warren Buckle. His large-scale hanging metal sculptures suggest the delicacy of the natural world and the enormity of a science fiction film. This work hung gracefully in the space. We are strategizing a way to bring it back to Miami for exhibition. Perhaps the work will fly its way there.

(l to r) Michelle, Rodney, Stefan Clarke, Rosie, Erman, Patricia and Warren Buckle, Sculptor, Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts

animation still, by Kemar Swaby, Artist, Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts

We visited with students including artist Kemar Swaby. Swaby animates articles of clothing to create a narrative that explores issues of sex, sexuality and abuses of power. His vignette of a disturbing encounter between two suits and a soccer player’s uniform is a meditation on the violence that is hidden by and between societal lines of class. His eloquent sense of rhythm in this work will surely develop as an integral part of his visual vocabulary in the years to come.

Ebony Disciplez (Rayo) by Ebony G. Patterson

The CAGe (College of Arts Gallery) featured Ebony G. Patterson's mixed media installation entitled 'Gangstas, Disciplez +the Doiley Boyz'. This gorgeous suite of works explores the aesthetics and attitudes of urban dancehall culture, embedded with hyperbolized narratives of male sexuality, both hardcore and skin-bleached. Patterson, a graduate of Edna Manley, pushes boundaries of site, space and gender in her poetic-ly sparkled and saturated and doiley-decorated rooms.

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Join us on Friday, April 3^rd from 7-10pm for the opening reception of ‘Living Sculpture’

Revolution Gallery

44 Lady Musgrave Road

Kingston 5, Jamaica WI

Exhibition Dates: April 2-6, 2009

Enjoy refreshments, performances and live music.

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