Liberation begins in the imagination : writings on Caribbean-British art / edited by David A. Bailey and Allison Thompson.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Bailey, David A., editor.

Thompson, Allison, editor.

Alumni and Friends Memorial Book Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Art, Caribbean--20th century.

Art, Caribbean.

Art, Caribbean--21st century.

Art, British--20th century.

Art, British.

Art, British--21st century.

Artists, Black--Great Britain.

Artists, Black.

African diaspora in art.

Great Britain.

Physical Description:

383 pages : illustrations (chiefly color), portraits ; 25 cm

Distribution:

New York, NY : ABRAMS

Place of Publication:

London : Tate Publishing, 2021.

Summary:

This volume brings together writings on the interrelationship of Britain and the English-speaking Caribbean nations, focusing specifically on the art of the Caribbean diaspora in Britain from the 1920s to today. Today, around a million British people are of Caribbean descent, reflecting a history of post-war migration that essentially begins and ends with the Nationality Act of 1948 and the Immigration Act of 1972 -- the so-called Windrush Generation. For many, London in particular was where the cultural archipelago of the Caribbean came together for the first time -- communication and travel between the islands being difficult -- and this British-Caribbean connection gave rise to a wealth of Black cultural forms. At one end of the spectrum, British-Caribbean art is abstract, symbolist, and, at times, cosmological; at the other it is socially realist, with many other positions in between or off that spectrum. Where art is engaged with changes in society, it evokes a community's struggle to forge an identity and livelihood for itself in an environment that often proved hostile. Other works evoke deeper historical experiences, in particular the traumatic after-images of plantation slavery and its legacy in culture and society.

Contents:

Liberation begins in the imagination: writings on Caribbean-British art / David A. Bailey & Allison Thompson

The sculptor / George Lamming

First journey / Yvonne Weekes

Plates section 1

chaprter 1. Context: Moments and Movements That Shaped the Caribbean Diaspora

Re-introduction to 'cruciality and the frog's perspective' and 'art of darkness: Black art and the problem of belonging to England' / Paul Gilroy

Cruciality and the frog's perspective: an agenda of difficulties for the Black arts movement in Britain / Paul Gilroy

Modernity and its others: three 'moments' in the Post-War history of the Black Diaspora arts / Stuart Hall

Black Diaspora visual arts symposium: a conversation about three 'moments' / Stuart Hall & David A. Bailey

Black Diaspora visual arts symposium: a response to Stuart Hall / George Lamming

The Caribbean community in Britain / Claudia Jones

The Caribbean artists movement, 1966-1972: a space and a voice for visual practice / Anne Walmsley

The Caribbean artists movement, 1966-1972 / Errol Lloyd

The Caribbean connection: historical background sketch / John La Rose & Errol Lloyd

A tragic excitement / Guy Brett

Running with the hare and hunting with the hounds / Gilane Tawadros

Curating carnival?: performance in contemporary Caribbean art / Claire Tancons

Voyage to Atlantis / Richard J. Powell

Diaspora, trauma and the poetics of remembrance / Jean Fisher

Decolonisation and disappointment: reading Fanon's sexual politics / Kobena Mercer

Plates section 2

chapter 2. The Artist and the Work

Two periods in the work of a West Indian artist: the paintings of Denis Williams / Wilson Harris

Althea McNish in conversation / John Weiss & John La Rose

Interview with Horace Ové / Michael McMillan

Conversation with Aubrey Williams / Rasheed Araeen

Poetic licence: interview with Isaac Julien & Peter Doig / Helen Sumpter

A Black avant-garde?: notes on Black audio film collective and Sankofa / Coco Fusco

Black British cinema: spectatorship and indentity formation in territories / Manthia Diawara

Migratory aesthetics, (dis)placing the 'Black' maternal subject in Martina Attille's dreaming rivers (1988) / Amna Malik

Sonia Boyce and crop over / Allison Thompson

Intimations of the real: on 'Western Deep and Caribs' leap / Jean Fisher

Digital media practice as critique: Roshini Kempadoo's installations 'ghosting and endless prospects' / Roshini Kempadoo

'Beyond the horizon, out at sea, a new day breaks': momory and identity in Ingrid Pollard's 'the Boy who watches ships go by' / Lou Smith

They've got painting: Frank Bowling's modernity and the post-1960 Atlantic / Courtney J. Martin

Denzil Forrester's art in context / John Lyons

Plates Section 3

chapter 3. Representation: the Failure of Institutions, the Persitence of Sytems of Oppression, and the Illusiveness of Liberation

Art of darkness: Black art and the problem of belonging to England / Paul Gilroy

Dialogue: from 'the fact of Blackness: Frantz Fanon and visual representation' / Lola Young, Gilane Tawadros, Martina Attille, Marc Latamie, Homi K. Bhabha, Franc̜oise Vergés

Framing the Caribbean: contemporary exhibitions in Britain / Elizabeth Robles

The illusion of inclusion: what institutions should learn from Caribbean art

Plates section 4.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Alumni and Friends Memorial Book Fund.

ISBN:

9781849767668

1849767661

OCLC:

1285698436