Amerindian Heritage Month Events
i) 'Bitter Sweet: Cassava Culture
(I): Multimedia Exhibition of Mirrored Glass
Prints, Photographs, Image and Soundscape Projections opens at
Castellani House, Thursday 11th September, 2003, at 5pm;
ii)Oswald Hussein foyer exhibition, Thursday 11th September -
4th October
The exhibition 'Bitter Sweet: Cassava Culture(I)'
presents the work of UK artist Fiona Saffron Wilkes, showing the
results of her ongoing research into Amerindian communities in
Guyana and the Caribbean, in particular the extensive and complex
use of the food staple, the bitter cassava plant (manihot esculenta).
The exhibition takes place in the main gallery and adjoining New
Acquisitions Room on the first floor of the National Gallery.
Ms. Wilkes was based at the University of Guyana's
Amerindian Research Unit in 1993 working for her Masters Degree
in Fine Art (Printmaking), awarded by the Slade School of Fine
Art, University College London, in 1994, and in 1995-96 for her
Ph.D. in the same field, awarded by the Slade School in 2001.
The particular focus of Dr. Wilkes' research
has been the elaborate cultivation and purification cycles of
the bitter cassava plant, and the social and spiritual practices,
tribal knowledge, myths and beliefs,
artifacts and art, generated by these defining, central activities
of Amerindian society.
She links the centuries-old richness and significance
of this culture with the modern world's interaction with it through
adventure travel and eco-tourism, and the growing appreciation
by Guyanese and foreign
visitors for the artifacts produced by Amerindian communities
which, though retaining their original use, have also become valued
as objects of art, Guyanese heritage culture and tourist mementos.
The artist will be showing her photographs of
the the Wai Wai's preparations for their traditional cassava harvest
celebration, involving the entire community and part of their
Christmas celebrations each year; these will be accompanied by
sound recordings corresponding to the activities in the photographs.
Of particular interest are her striking glass panels: glass-printed
digital images accompanied by etched texts on mirrored glass quoting
the words of travellers from the 19th century to the present day.
In the second, adjoining room to the main gallery, large video
and soundscape projections will present images from indigenous
peoples' daily lives and practices and accompanying commentaries
culled from Ms. Wilkes' research in Guyana. These sequences will
run from 10 to 11.30am and from 2 to 3.30pm each week day and
from 2to 3pm and 4 to 5pm on Saturdays.
In her efforts to continue 'ongoing dialogues'
with her exhibition audiences Ms. Wilkes is setting up an interactive
audio-visual project where she hopes to talk to and record brief
comments on the exhibition's
contents or issues from gallery visitors, from 11.30am and 3.30pm
each day. This material may be used by the artist in her future
research orexhibitions. A message board will also be available
for written
comments.
This exhibition has been sponsored by
the Arts Council of England, Le Meridien Pegasus, Severn Trent
Water International and other UK companies Metro Imaging, Agfa,
Lamplight, Dorell Glass Co. Ltd., Gibbon Inks and Coatings, Goddard
& Gibbs, Polite Postcards, Hendy Banks, J.W. Bollom &
Co. Ltd., John T. Keep & Sons Ltd., D. Bush Precision Engineering,
and Europe West Indies Line facilitated through local agents John
Fernandes Limited.
In the continuing tradition of marking Amerindian
Heritage Month, new works by leading Lokono (Arawak) sculptor
Oswald Hussein will also be on display in the ground floor and
first floor foyers of the National
Gallery, showing his merging of the personal, familiar and mystical
into natural and abstract forms, and representing his physical
and spiritual engagement with his environment.
The National Gallery is open to the public on Mondays to Fridays
from 10am to 5pm and on Saturdays from 2 to 6pm; the gallery is
closed on Sundays.
TOP
Tuesday
September 9, 2003