Gallery an Island of Self-Expression

By Marilyn Sanderson

Imagine taking your fondest memories, saddest moments, greatest fears, your most personal thoughts and displaying them for the entire world to see.

This is precisely what a group of Caribbean artists has done. The theme, “No Country is an Island: Issues of Freedom and Diaspora in Caribbean Art” slowly becomes evident, as you walk askew outlining the walls of the RVCC Art Gallery.

The theme is of course a reflection of the poet John Donne’s “Meditation, The Island: Isolation vs. Interconnectedness of Mankind.”

“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main…” The suggestion helps to facilitate the idea that people are not isolated from one another, but that mankind is interconnected.

This is a reality for these Caribbean/American artists, regardless of national independence or hemispheric location. They have discovered a way of expressing themselves, helping all of us to understand what their world is like. As you view each exhibit, don’t be surprised if you begin to feel some of your own emotions stir.

“These works are photographs in various genres of my work that include many significant things in my life. Memories of my father, life growing up in Jamaica and traveling to the United States,” explains artist Albert Chong at the opening night reception on Sept. 16.

The exhibition, coordinated by Donna Stackhouse, assistant professor for visual arts and curated by Yoland Skeete, executive director of Newark’s Sumei Multidisciplinary Art Center, features 13 artists whose work explores their Caribbean culture and heritage and runs through Oct. 20, in the RVCC Art Gallery.

Asked if the coordination of the exhibit was difficult, Ms. Stackhouse stated, “Coordinating the exhibit was a long slow process and actually started about two years ago. Yoland Skeete, who was teaching here at the time, spoke to me about an exhibition she wanted to put together to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Haiti’s independence. I knew that the Somerset County Cultural & Heritage Commission was offering grants to local organizations for projects like this and I thought this would be a great exhibit to bring to the college.

“Then Haiti’s political structure collapsed and Yoland realized that she wouldn’t be able to get the artwork she needed for the exhibit out of Haiti. That’s when we started talking about making the exhibit more about the art and artists coming out of the Caribbean, rather than just one country.”

The summer of 2004, Donna worked with Yoland in putting a budget together for the exhibit and worked with Betty Hutcheon at the College Foundation to put the grant application together. She had to put another grant application together for the College Foundation to get the matching funds needed to meet the requirement of the SCC&HC grant.

By last spring, Donna and Yoland were in frequent contact to schedule artist selection, catalogue design, printing, etc. Donna then contacted various people around campus to try to get volunteers and support services lined up for the exhibit. By the end of June, Yoland and Donna were meeting frequently on campus to review the gallery space, postcard design and printing and planning when the artwork would be delivered and installed. “I needed to make sure the gallery walls and floor were painted in time for the installation of the art work. There are a lot of details that go into an exhibition of this scale.”

Curator Yoland Skeete discusses what this exhibit means to her, “As an artist and curator born and raised in the Caribbean [Trinidad], this exhibit was my way of connecting with my peers and expressing my deep longings for home, community and family. It was a way of talking with these artists about issues that I have constantly struggled with and continue to do so as a member of an immigrant group to whom the word diaspora has now been attached. The exhibition expresses the view of the colonizer and the colonized, the immigrant and the one who still lives at home, as well as the children of the immigrant living abroad.”

Michelle Susanen, a student at RVCC, comments on the exhibit: “I love the photo of the licence plate with flowers, it is a memorial for James Byrd Jr., he was murdered in Texas. It is so powerful, but the whole display is powerful.”

The featured artists are Nicole Awai (Trinidad), Elia Alba (Dominican Republic), Manuel Acevedo (Puerto Rico), Abel Barroso (Cuba), Carlos Betancourt (Puerto Rico), Albert Chong (Jamaica), Chris Cozier (Trinidad), Andres Montalvan Cueller (Cuba), Richard Fung (Trinidad), Sandra Ramos (Cuba), Jesus Rivera (Cuba), Yasmin Spiro (Jamaica) and Gelsy Verna (Haiti).

Gallery hours are Mondays, 3-8 p.m.; Tuesdays and Thursdays, noon-3 p.m.; Wednesdays, 1-8 p.m.; and Saturdays, noon-4 p.m. The exhibition is free and open to the public. The program is made possible, in part, by funds from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, and administered by the Somerset County Cultural & Heritage Commission through the State/County Partnership Local Arts Program. It’s also made possible in part by the RVCC Foundation and Target Corporation.