Haben: AlterNATIVE and Space

Meeting with Annie Paul(The Repeating ALTERNATIVE) and student Alicia Milne was an interesting time- especially given our recent readings on Jocelyn Gardner's pieces on the duality concept of colonizing persons and post-colonial feminist (White-Caribbean) identities taking up the island space.


This movement of artists and Caribbean natives returning home to work are met with opposition- an aspect of the art world I would not have covered had I not read Annie Paul’s work. In a sense these alterNATIVE artists fit into this duality concept Gardner expresses.

Interestingly the internal refugee concept is very much alive in the artworld. An even greater obstacle is the concept of race within the artworld. For instance still “race is and remains a thorny issue in Caribbean artworlds” which is a concept Id like to pay better attention to in terms of our own work and this truth of the Caribbean Id like to incorporate whether in speech or the costume make up itself. Our meeting allowed more self reflection as to why Ive embarked on this project to begin with or why I feel the need to make changes and additions depending on the people I meet throughout the process. Really allowing influences to do their part, educate myself on the Caribbean and how I can take up my own space here.

Not only incorporating what Ive heard and experienced but using this project as a stepping stone towards awareness and further reflection is final.