“There is a kind of day that is very grey or brown . . . it is a mood or tone I often feel on a dreary day, waiting for a taxi before it rains or going to some kind of daily routine . . . It’s the experience of being on the street in open space, or just inside ourselves. What do we feel, what do we choose to notice and sense on a given day? It’s about the internal and external landscape of the place as I experience it.”

From "Taking note", by Nicholas Laughlin, in the August 2006 Caribbean Review of Books

Monday, November 15, 2010

New version in "Vous êtes ici," Martinique.

Tropical Night - Martinique
Another version related to the space and moment consisting of 210 drawings.

Tropical Night in Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea (CGAC), Spain

Tropical Night / Spain
Photo by Nuno Ferreira

Friday, January 29, 2010

Afro Modern installation.

TATE INSTALLATION
Installation of larger version of "Tropical Night"  in AFRO MODERN at the TATE, Liverpool. 189 drawings were used instead of the 136 used in the "Infinite Island" show at the  Brooklyn Museum in 2007.

TATE INSTALLATION
Getting the pins and clips up accurately. It took one full day.

TATE INSTALLATION


TATE INSTALLATION FINAL

Final arrangement - click here for detail of new arrangement.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

MADE IN CHINA

MADE IN CHINA.jpg
"MADE IN CHINA" stamps have been so much a part of our lives growing up in Caribbean. In the past it was pencils and plastic pencil-sharpeners, yellow twelve-inch-rulers etc. Modest items with all the associations of developing countries and low level consumption. Today, in the same locations, for people with bigger budgets, it is now monolithic structures and narratives of progress.
I bought this little stamp in a mall in Port of Spain. I began to see these little stamps more and more over the years. Apparently they are quite commonly used for labeling, on arrival, in small shops? Why are they being labeled here in Trinidad? What would the value of labeling my work this way in narratives of development and progress? So far I have begun to label drawings of pedestals for politicians to stand upon.
I am about to install a newer updated version of "Tropical Night" at the TATE Liverpool, in the Afro Modern exhibition. I packed my little rubber stamp.