Trini curates Wreckage exhibit on indentureship at NY gallery
Out of horror and destruction there can come creativity and beauty.That idea is explored in “everything slackens in a wreck,” an art exhibition to be held at the Ford Foundation Gallery, New York – the first physical show since the gallery closed in January 2020.
Curated by Trinidadian artist, author and professor Dr Andil Gosine, the exhibit will take place from June 1-August 20.
Gosine explained that it combined and re-imagined artifacts and images associated with indentured labour. Artists include Margaret Chen of Chinese-Jamaican decent from Canada, Andrea Chung from the US who has a Chinese-Jamaican father and a Trinidadian mother, Indo-Trinidadian Wendy Nanan, and Indo-Guadeloupean Kelly Sinnapah Mary.Wreckage evokes colonialism and the destruction left in its wake. But those who were marginalized engaged in “wrecking work,” answering the destruction with art that offers order, alternate visions of existence, and co-existence.“Indentureship is this important moment after the abolition of slavery that, of course, impacts the whole make-up of the Caribbean, but it often doesn’t get registered. For me, in looking at the indentureship work, and looking generally at the Caribbean, people arrived and things were striped from them whether it was through genocide of Amerindians or the enslavement of African people – people lost everything, including their lives.
He said he was tired of the “suffering tone” adopted when it comes to work about the Caribbean. With that in mind, he preferred to highlight the creativity of the people who went through those challenges, thereby showing their strength, resilience, creativity, and inventiveness. "For me it was important to look back at this brutal history of the Americas and not just see the brutality. Because simultaneously, whether it was indigenous, enslaved or indentured people, no matter how horrible the conditions, they had to find ways to find moments of pleasure and joy to just survive.”
Curated by Trinidadian artist, author and professor Dr Andil Gosine, the exhibit will take place from June 1-August 20.
Gosine explained that it combined and re-imagined artifacts and images associated with indentured labour. Artists include Margaret Chen of Chinese-Jamaican decent from Canada, Andrea Chung from the US who has a Chinese-Jamaican father and a Trinidadian mother, Indo-Trinidadian Wendy Nanan, and Indo-Guadeloupean Kelly Sinnapah Mary.Wreckage evokes colonialism and the destruction left in its wake. But those who were marginalized engaged in “wrecking work,” answering the destruction with art that offers order, alternate visions of existence, and co-existence.“Indentureship is this important moment after the abolition of slavery that, of course, impacts the whole make-up of the Caribbean, but it often doesn’t get registered. For me, in looking at the indentureship work, and looking generally at the Caribbean, people arrived and things were striped from them whether it was through genocide of Amerindians or the enslavement of African people – people lost everything, including their lives.
He said he was tired of the “suffering tone” adopted when it comes to work about the Caribbean. With that in mind, he preferred to highlight the creativity of the people who went through those challenges, thereby showing their strength, resilience, creativity, and inventiveness. "For me it was important to look back at this brutal history of the Americas and not just see the brutality. Because simultaneously, whether it was indigenous, enslaved or indentured people, no matter how horrible the conditions, they had to find ways to find moments of pleasure and joy to just survive.”
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