Tilting Axis Curatorial Fellowship

The curatorial fellowship is a direct outcome of the Tilting Axis meetings in 2015 at Fresh Milk in Barbados and in 2016 at the Pérez Art Museum Miami. Scotland based cultural partners CCA Glasgow, David Dale Gallery, Hospitalfield and curatorial collective Mother Tongue produced a structural long-term fellowship for an emerging contemporary art practitioner living and working in the Caribbean.

This new fellowship opportunity focuses on the development of pragmatic and critical curatorial development hailing from the Caribbean region, and is research and practice-led, and mentor-based. Designed as a year-long programme between the Caribbean region and Scotland, it offers support for critical development of curatorial practice and gives a practical base in the partner institutions with visits to Scotland and throughout the Caribbean.

1. Curating beyond the Exhibition: Reflecting on Three Weeks in Scotland

I am not terribly excited by exhibitions. I needed to get that off my chest.

I like them, and sometimes they are perfectly appropriate, but of all the ways to communicate, it’s not my favourite. As an independent curator, it seems like a strange idea to have (or so I thought, but more on that later). After all, isn’t that what curators do? Make exhibitions? My answer is: sometimes, if that is what’s best. Read more →

2. Getting Located: Three Weeks in Grenada

As a Jamaican, one feels a priori entitled to Caribbean-ness. There’s a sense that “we are the Caribbean”. Even the other islands—their tourist shops filled with Bob Marley tote bags and “no problem mon” mugs—know it. When people think “Caribbean”, they think “Jamaica”. I’m not trying to start a fight here. I’m just owning privilege, locating myself and being clear about my blind spots. Read more →

3. On Duppies and the Archive: Three Weeks in Barbados

Shortly after I arrived in Barbados, artist and manager of Fresh Milk Barbados, Katherine Kennedy told me a story about an old cotton tree that was to be cut down to make room for a parking lot. The plans never materialised. People came out to demonstrate against the felling of the tree. Read more →

4. Swimming Blind: A couple weeks in Suriname

When I think about Suriname, I think about rivers. I’d seen rivers before, or I thought I had. The rivers in Suriname were not the crystal clear, blue-green tinged, pebble-lined streams I knew in Jamaica though. These were opaque and wide, chocolate milk brown or reflective black. Read more →