Life Within Landscapes: Caribbean - Cambridge Art, Now

This exhibition is a celebration of the Caribbean landscape and the people that inhabit it – the remarkable flora and fauna, unique colours and distinctive light, the diverse forms of visual expression and tapestry of cultures. The exhibition presents a selection of remarkable artworks by three female and Black British contemporary artist - Sandra Scott, Nadia Koo and Selena Scott. In a story familiar in multi-cultural city, they have made their home in Cambridgeshire, while continuing to be informed and inspired by their Caribbean heritage. Their work is presented through the lens of their lived experiences, life-long travels and multi-cultural backgrounds as well as personal histories and memories. 

 

The history and culture of the Caribbean is inextricably linked to landscape. Both in terms of  ‘real’ and ‘imagined’ geographies, scholars of the Caribbean refer not only to the remarkable physical and geographic qualities of this varied region but also the social, economic, political and historical trajectories that contribute to its complex, and often disputed but visibly distinct social and cultural landscape -- at the heart of which is the relationship between people and place.

 

Inevitably, Caribbean artistic expression is interlinked with complex and traumatic events and histories – slavery, forced migration, colonialism, economic exploitation, exclusion, discrimination – and their legacies. Nonethless, stories of survival, adaptation, cultivation, transformation and renewal – and ultimately hope abound and are articulated in Caribbean art, poetry and literature. The Caribbean is characterised by the ‘perplexing co-existence of beaty and evil featuring as fundamental facts of existence in that society’ writes Kachua (2022) in his discussion of Derek Alton Walcott, renowned Caribbean poet, playwright and artist.  In art, as in poetry, people living with, as opposed to against, the land, offers notes of hope. 

 

This exhibitions presents a range of media and artforms ranging from textile-arts, doll-making as well as painting and printmaking, reflecting some of the rich tapestry of artistic expression found across the region and within contemporary arts. The three contemporary female artists in this exhibition offer a remarkable insight into the Caribbean, its influence on individuals, our collective imagination and much wider, global impact of Caribbean culture. Their artworks blend a knowledge of the Caribbean and of Cambridge. Like much great art, they surprise, inspire and reveal. You are invited to see what you will, but the more you look the more you see. They demonstrate that, in a world obsessed with classifications, it is possible to break down boundaries, preconceptions and prejudices, starting with our expectation, understanding and appreciation of art and culture. 

 

Dr. Anna M. Dempster

Wolfson College, Cambridge

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