National Gallery exhibition

Materialising Slavery: Art, Artefact, Memory and Identity
September 16- End of 2007



The Institute of Jamaica Galleries and

The National Gallery of Jamaica



This exhibition is a collaboration of the Museums Division, Institute of Jamaica , and the National Gallery of Jamaica to commemorate the Bicentenary of the Abolition of the Atlantic slave trade.



This exhibition examines the intersection of slavery, history, trauma, memory and representation. More specifically, it is an exploration of the complex relationships between slavery and identity and belonging in contemporary Jamaica . Utilising materials such as implements of torture, books, prints and drawings, among others produced at the time of, and to reinforce the system of slavery, this exhibition will explore new world slavery from the position of the “colony”. It will seek to examine how we as peoples whose original location is rooted in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade can visualise this past. Though grounded in the historical, the exhibition will also explore the relationship between the slave past and the present, especially through the lenses of several Jamaican contemporary artists whose work examine the impact of “memories” of slavery. Additionally, we have invited renowned African American (of Caribbean descent) Artist and Scholar, Fred Wilson, who has been at the forefront of museological engagement with the objects of slavery and visual display of the “hidden” past, to create an installation using some of the collections of the Institute of Jamaica.



This Four Part Exhibition is being curated by Wayne Modest of the Museums Division of the Institute of Jamaica and David Boxer of the National Gallery of Jamaica



The opening function on Sunday September 16 will be at the Institute of Jamaica and the National Gallery of Jamaica.



FEATURED ARTISTS

Joseph B. Kidd, James Hakewill, Isaac M. Belisario, Adolphe Duperly, George Robertson, Carl Abrahams, Henry Daley / Vera Alabaster, Everald Brown, Clinton Brown, Christopher Gonzales, Augustus John, Judy MacMillan, Ronald Moody, Karl Parboosingh, Edna Manley, Koren Der Harootian, Albert Huie, Alvin Marriott, Ronald Moody, Namba Roy, David Miller Snr, David Miller Jnr., Hector Whistler, Osmond Watson, Barrington Watson, Richmond Barthe, Gloria Escoffery, Leonard Morris, Mallica Kapo Reynolds, Albert Artwell, William Rhule, Marvin Bartley

Charles Campbell, Camille Chedda, Christopher Clare, Renee Cox, Carol Crichton, Laura Facey, Nicholas Morris, Petrona Morrison, K. Khalfani Ra, Omari Ra, Roberta Stoddart, Oya Tyehimba, David Boxer, Christopher Irons, Lawrence Graham Brown, Oneika Russell, Michael Parchment



And specially invited eminent American Artist Fred Wilson