Renee Cox – From the Sacred Geometry series (2014)
Work on the Jamaica Biennial 2014 continues apace and the selection of the juried section of the Biennial was completed on October 20. Judges Diana Nawi and Sara Hermann selected 65 works by 53 artists – entrants are being notified individually of the outcome or can call the NGJ at 922-1561 for more information. We are now receiving submissions by the invited artists, which close on November 7, after which we will announce the final list of participating artists. We are also working on the logistics with the six specially invited artists and now present the first of a three-part introduction to these artists and their projects, starting with Renee Cox and Richard Mark Rawlins.
Renee Cox – The Red Coat (2004, Collection: NGJ)
Renee Cox is a New York-based photographer and mixed media artist who is known for her seminal and at times controversial presentation of Afrofuturistic photography to the art world. She has also worked as a fashion photographer in Paris and New York. Cox was born in Jamaica and moved to New York where she received a degree in Film Studies at Syracuse University. Cox has been featured in many museum exhibition including the Spelman Museum of Fine Art (2013), the Wadsworth Athenaeum Museum of Art (2008), the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke (2006), the Brooklyn Museum (2001), the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) Boston (1996), and the Whitney Museum of American Art (1993), to name a few. Cox’s work was recently featured in the book and exhibition Pictures from Paradise: A Survey of Contemporary Carribean Photography as part of the Contact Photography Festival 2014 in Toronto, Canada.
Finding the inspiration for her work from her own life experiences, Renee Cox has used her ownbody in her photographs to represent her criticisms of society and as well as to celebrate and empower women. Arguably her best known work is Yo Mama’s Last Supper, in which she recreated Leonardo Da Vinci’s Last Supper by featuring her nude self, sitting in for Jesus Christ and surrounded by all black disciples. When shown at the Brooklyn Museum in 2001, Yo Mama’s Last Supper incurred the wrath of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and religious authorities in New York City but the work is now regarded as a classic example of contemporary photography and it has been referenced in scholarly publications and lectures around the world.
In 2006 Cox exhibited her series Queen Nanny of the Maroons at the National Gallery of Jamaica’s Biennial, where it was awarded the Aaron Matalon Award. The series drew from Cox’s Jamaican heritage and Cox took on the persona of a female resistance leader from the plantation period and other related female figures. One of the photographs from the Queen Nanny of the Maroons, Red Coat is now represented in the National Gallery of Jamaica’s collection and it has also has travelled to museums as part of the Caribbean: Crossroads of the World exhibition, including the Perez Art Museum Miami (2014), and the Studio Museum in Harlem (2012).
The Jamaica Biennial 2014 will feature a selection from Cox’s latest body of work, Sacred Geometry consists of digitally manipulated black and white portraits that display self-similar patterns. They are executed with precision, creating sculptural kaleidoscopes of the human body while exploring the power of symbols as elements of collective imagination. The inspiration for Cox’s new work comes from fractals, a mathematical concept centuries old and used by many ancient African cultures. “Sacred Geometry” has also been the result of Cox’s embrace of the digital world. Bridging the gap between the old and new technology has brought on new challenges and endless possibilities Renee Cox’s biennial submission will be shown at National Gallery West.
Richard Mark Rawlins – from “Finding Black” (2014)
Richard Mark Rawlins is a graphic designer and contemporary artist who lives and works in Trinidad. He is the publisher of the online magazine Draconian Switch (www.artzpub.com), and collaborator in the Alice Yard contemporary art-space initiative. His most recent exhibition, STEUPPS (2013), took place at Medulla Art Gallery, Port of Spain, Trinidad. He has had several solo exhibitions in Trinidad and was a resident artist in Vermont Studio Center, Vermont, USA (2012). His work has also been exhibited at the Museum of Art and Design, New York (2010) and in Kingston, Jamaica (2012).
Richard Mark Rawlins _ from the STEUPSS project
Rawlins will feature two new works at the Jamaica Biennial 2014, Finding Black and #DidYouHearYourself, a scathing commentary in political mores in contemporary Trinidad. He had the following to say about the series Finding Black: ‘I think the control and presentation of one’s own image is an important concern. How you are perceived shouldn’t be defined by passing “poplitical” references which often make simplistic, stereotypical or racist depictions of blackness. Author W.E. Dubois coined the term “double consciousness” to describe the African American struggle to balance being African and American. I would like to think that I, as a black man from the Caribbean, juggle a triple consciousness of sorts – one construct is framed by being Trinidadian, another by being black with entitlements and class privileges, and another purely based on a populist political conditioning by the media. It is in this triple consciousness balancing act that my work finds its way, borrowing elements of Afrofuturism – specifically in its fringe references to Sun Ra, along with heavy doses of remixed early Jack Kirby and Stan Lee and the iconic black character interplay they created (with some DC Comics thrown in for good measure). This remix becomes a counter to perceived notions of the black man. This isn’t a universal fight or martyrdom affair but rather a personal examination of my own “black programming”. It is, for all intents and purposes, a “Pantone” reference to my years on this planet. It is simply Rawlins 046: Finding Black.’
