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Monday 24 October 2011

Showing in New York and Questions of Value


Ey!


As a part of the CariBBeing Festival, my work will be on exhibit at MoCADA and La Maison d'Art in Booklyn, New York from Oct 28 - Nov 18 2011.
A couple weeks ago I was featured in the business magazine of one of Trinidad's daily newspapers.


I'd like to thank Camille Bethel for the opportunity. 


What's stuck with me most is the discomfort of being essentially defined. I'm having trouble with the imagined pressures coming with the label of success. I'm not sure I even understand what success is and whether I have attained it. 


I've decided to ignore all that and focus on work. At the end of it, I'd like my work to speak volumes, to comfort, inspire and embolden. 


I often struggle with the idea of value in my work. I have what seems like a uniquely West Indian belief that for work to be valuable it needs to be large in scale and specifically involve the post colonial struggle, poverty and portrayals of such or politics. I find fitting in hard. I always have, even as a child, not processed my world like everyone else would have me believe they did. What makes it hard now is that that disconnectedness, if that is what it is, is tied up with my worth as an artist. I find it difficult to be engrossed by the "heavier" or more contemporary choices of subject matter. In public discussion it was said that I make "precious little things". Not quite a good thing here. But why not? Is there no value in precious little things? 


I feel like I'm in a little bit of a fog with my headspace right now but I can see my way out. I'm a mixture of excitement and nostalgia, trepidation, uncertainty and overflowing with warmth. What to do with it all?




Keep good,




4 comments:

Gerri said...

So amazing Bri! You are an inspiration! Congrats and blessings...

Unknown said...

Congratulations. Be proud and embrace it all with open arms.

Summer said...

I see lots of value in what you're doing Brianna. I for one have had enough of the usual discourses and I think lots of Caribbean people of our generation are. I still believe you could do a lot to revolutionize Caribbean children's illustration even if 'children illustrator' is not the label you'd prefer. Someone like you shouldn't be confined/restricted; you can do lots of things with your work and spirit in so many directions. And to put the microscopic on 'precious little things' is to look at all that is undervalued in humanity and in culture. You're doing great. Hope you make it through that fog :)

Best wishes,
Summer

Bespoke Biddie said...

Yayyyyy I'm in NY I'm going!

Sunnie
(.=