1 Renée Cox (Jamaica, 1960; lives & works in New York) “Redcoat,” from Queen Nanny of the Maroons series, 2004 Color digital inket print on watercolor paper, AP 1, 76 x 44 in. (193 x 111.8 cm) Courtesy of the artist Caribbean: Crossroads of the World, organized This exhibition is organized into six themes by El Museo del Barrio in collaboration with the that consider the objects from various cultural, Queens Museum of Art and The Studio Museum in geographic, historical and visual standpoints: Harlem, explores the complexity of the Caribbean Shades of History, Land of the Outlaw, Patriot region, from the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804) to Acts, Counterpoints, Kingdoms of this World and the present. The culmination of nearly a decade Fluid Motions. of collaborative research and scholarship, this exhibition gathers objects that highlight more than At The Studio Museum in Harlem, Shades of two hundred years of history, art and visual culture History explores how artists have perceived from the Caribbean basin and its diaspora. the significance of race and its relevance to the social development, history and culture of the Caribbean: Crossroads engages the rich history of Caribbean, beginning with the pivotal Haitian the Caribbean and its transatlantic cultures. The Revolution. Land of the Outlaw features works broad range of themes examined in this multi- of art that examine dual perceptions of the venue project draws attention to diverse views Caribbean—as both a utopic place of pleasure and of the contemporary Caribbean, and sheds new a land of lawlessness—and investigate historical light on the encounters and exchanges among and contemporary interpretations of the “outlaw.” the countries and territories comprising the New World. In particular, the exhibition emphasizes At El Museo del Barrio, Counterpoints communicates the relationship between the Caribbean and the fundamental message that the Caribbean the United States, and artists from both locales plantation systems and industries such as sugar, who participate in ongoing conversations about fruit, tobacco and coffee had tremendous national identity and belonging. aesthetic and social impact on the region as a whole. Patriot Acts studies the idea that artists The works on view at the three institutions and intellectuals were instrumental in creating the represent Caribbean perspectives and external young Caribbean nations’ visual and conceptual perceptions of the region through a wide identities, which often pitted traditional, academic range of subjects and artistic practices that aesthetics against the “authentic,” indigenous and include portraiture, spiritual and religious African pasts of the region. themes, depictions of labor and historical events, abstraction, and contemporary video At the Queens Museum of Art, Fluid Motions and installation work. This selection provides examines the geographical realities of a region a visual history of the Caribbean as a pivotal made up of islands and coastal areas. Kingdoms crossroads between Africa, Europe, Asia and the of this World considers the close relationship Americas. Whether using techniques developed between historical events and the development within the region or Western art traditions, the of subsequent popular traditions, particularly in artists explore the movement of people, objects, terms of religious practice. Many of the strongest images and ideas through the many waterways traditions, drawn from African rituals, have that join and separate the expanded conceptual become significant elements of carnival and and geographical boundaries of the Caribbean. other performative practices. 1 THE STUDIO MUSEUM IN HARLEM SHADES OF HistOry LAND OF THE OUTLaw The works in Shades of History offer a broad Land of the Outlaw brings together works of art perspective on the various ways artists have that address perceptions of the Caribbean as explored the significance and relevance of both a utopian place of pleasure and a site of race to the history and visual culture of the illicit or deviant activity. The notion of deviance Caribbean. Since the Haitian Revolution (1791– appears in various myths and stereotypical 1804), a pivotal event in the increased visibility characters—including pirates, treasure-hunters, and power of people of African descent in the slave traders and even zombies—that helped region, discussions of Caribbean selfhood and promote the idea of a dangerous Caribbean in identity have encompassed human rights, social the popular imagination during colonization, and status, national identity, and beauty. The artists that are now part of global popular culture. At in this section explore the history and legacy the same time, a parallel view of the Caribbean of cultural hybridity in the Caribbean and the as paradise was created through mass-produced experiences of African descendants throughout illustrations and texts. the Americas. In the modern period, this idealized landscape The works on view examine the legacies of slavery became the subject of inspiration and critique and abolition, class- and race-based conflict, for many artists who depict social struggles significant figures in Caribbean history and the and confront nationalist ideals, casting political ideals of social and cultural movements such or well-known figures as simultaneously heroic as the Harlem Renaissance, Négritude, and the and villainous subjects. For instance, duo Allora Civil Rights movement. One keystone of this & Calzadilla often examine the U.S. military section is a late-eighteenth century drawing presence in the region. Their video included in this by Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson, which depicts section documents a resident of Vieques driving revolutionary and abolitionist Jean-Baptiste a motorcycle with a trumpet attached to its Belley, a former slave from Saint-Domingue muffler. Ironically inferring the sound of triumph, and, originally, Senegal, who represented the this intervention is also an homage to a leader colonies at the French National Convention of the Puerto Rican Popular Army, who could be during the Revolution. The work is a canonical construed as a national “outlaw.” Many of the portrait of an important black figure, reflecting contemporary works in this section investigate Belley’s respected status as a mediator and the intertwined historical interpretations of the voice of the colonies to France. This and other “outlaw,” embracing and interrogating this figure works within Shades of History provide a visual through present-day concepts of trespassing, entry into the complex history of ideas of race at borders, and cultural fluidity. the “crossroads of the world.” 2 Edouard Duval-Carrié (Haiti 1954; lives & works in Miami) Le General Toussaint Enfumé (General Toussaint Wreathed in Smoke), 2003 Multimedia on wood in artist frame, 50 x 50 in. (127 x 127 cm.) Collection of Mireille Chancey Gonzalez 3 Enrique Grau Araujo (Colombia, 1920–2004) La Mulata Cartagenera, 1940 Oil on canvas, 28 x 24 in. (71.1 x 61 cm) Museo Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá 4 EL MUSEO DEL BARRIO COUNTERPOints PatriOT Acts Counterpoints reflects on the economic Patriot Acts studies the central role that creole developments of the Caribbean, focusing on the culture and notions of hybridity, supported by shift from plantation systems and commodities newly empowered local economic forces, play such as sugar, tobacco, and fruit to the oil and in the configuration of national and regional tourism industries. These have had tremendous discourses of identity. Artists and intellectuals aesthetic and social impact while proving to often pitted traditional, academic aesthetics be a source of wealth and conflict. As Cuban against the “authentic,” indigenous and African anthropologist Fernando Ortiz demonstrated, heritages of the Caribbean. With newly- two essentially different economic models independent countries developing throughout produced sharp contrasts in the development of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, national Caribbean societies. Sugar was a transnational identity and culture were areas of constant business which relied on the latifundia (plantation inquiry. In the wake of the crisis of Western or hacienda) system, new technologies and civilizations, non-mainstream or non-Western low-skilled laborers. The tobacco industry was traditions develop throughout the region. Among developed locally and employed highly-trained the subthemes explored here are the tensions technical workers who were key to the growing between nationalism and cosmopolitanism, the middle class. Today, a new counterpoint is roles of indigenismo, costumbrismo and the unfolding, in which the oil and tourism industries intuitives, the complex notion of the self, and the collide. One requires ideal, pristine beaches concept of a Caribbean style. and waters while the other threatens the same important resources. Both are heavily dependent on scarce natural resources which are threatened by climate change. 5 QUEENS MUSEUM OF Art FLUID MOTIONS KINGDOMS OF THIS WORLD Fluid Motions examines the complexities of the Kingdoms of this World considers the variety geographical and geopolitical realities of a region of people, languages, art forms, and religions made up of islands and coastal areas, connected that co-exist in the Caribbean. Spiritual practices, and separated by bodies of water, where human popular music and dance genres, newly created and natural forces collide, and commercial dialects, and Carnival emerge from the diffusion routes often mask foreign imperial ambitions.