Reimagining Borders curated by Clairmont Chung

Reimagining Borders was an intimate, week-long show featuring Guyanese visual arts held at the Rufaro Centre in South Ruimveldt Gardens, Georgetown, Guyana (Fig. 1). Curator Clairmont Chung has explained that the exhibition's title could be understood through multiple registers, speaking to issues that are “not just local—pertaining to Guyana—but globally” relevant and imperative to confront, such as the climate crisis. He elaborated thatAnd participate they did. The exhibition included around forty paintings, sculptures, and mixed media artworks by eighteen artists, including three short films screened and discussed in the gallery and on Zoom. While the week-long run was brief, a series of ten expansive panel discussions took place live in the gallery space and were simultaneously broadcast via Zoom to an international audience. The exhibition and accompanying panels featured an array of Guyanese artists practicing both “at home” and abroad: some with international acclaim and others currently establishing visual arts careers. The presentation of different generations of Guyanese artists together was effective, particularly in demonstrating how younger artists were building on the previous generations’ valuing of Blackness, Indigeneity, African, and other “shaded” heritages.Alyce Cameron, an emerging artist and recent University of Guyana graduate, showed three mixed media acrylic paintings in the exhibition (Fig. 2). The works come from what Cameron calls her ongoing Orisha Series created in honor of Yoruba divinities close to the artist's heart, mind, body, soul—and ori. Cameron explained that her devotional portraiture explicitly reimagines borders that tend to restrict many Guyanese people's conceptions of themselves and their own cultural heritages. “Especially for the youth, to see themselves represented within the arts is vital,” Cameron insisted, hoping they will be able “to see themselves in the African cultures, to highlight it for them, that's their culture, too.”2 Cameron bears a keen awareness of how creative practices have served artists of the past in their efforts to revalue Blackness and Afro-Guyanese heritages.Among the most prominent artists featured was Philip Moore (1921-2012), whose Black Christ (Fig. 3) graced the Rufaro Centre space, transforming the bottom-house gallery into a sanctuary of sorts.3 The divine icon formed of mahogany had long inspired devotion among congregants of Georgetown's Church of the Transfiguration, before being unceremoniously returned to Moore, much to his disappointment.4 Gary Thomas, preeminent sculptor and originator of what Stanley Greaves has termed “the Main Street School” of Guyanese arts, had four works on display (Fig. 4).5 For Thomas, a contemporary of Moore's, the Black Christ “is a masterpiece ... that needs to go to MOMA. ... ‘Cause look what's happening now—everyone's questioning the color of God.” When Moore began the sculpture in the late 1960s, building on his previous work shaping (likenesses of) gods—or murti—for Hindu communities, Thomas explained that in Guyana “it was kind of revolutionary, to tell a Christian that Jesus was Black.”6 Filmmaker Errol Brewster screened two films, one that also featured glimpses of Moore's monumental homage to Guyana's national hero, Cuffy/Kofi/Coffij. As Thomas noted, the younger artists in the exhibition, such as Cameron, were building on Moore's radical ambitions and spiritual visions.The exhibition benefitted from a wide variety of media showcasing the diversity of conceptual and technical approaches embraced by Guyanese artists. A number of wire, stone, and chain sculptures by Winslow Craig were on display (Fig. 5). Winston Strick exhibited three works in his signature leather conical forms, modified with canvas, aluminum, and concrete. A generous selection of paintings by Desmond Alli was shown, along with his sculptures in purple heart and saman wood. Alli's A Stele: Symbol of Good Will (Fig. 6) was a standout by all means and measures—a double column of stacked heads, beaks, fists, and eyes towering over ten feet tall. Antonio Butts’ four compelling portraits included his “pyrographic” technique applied to bamboo (Fig. 7). Twelve-year-old painter Zoe Van Tull's Fruit Bowl featured brilliant tempera on unassuming construction paper. The dynamic painters Keith Agard and Anesia Joseph-Gonsalves (Fig. 8) had a number of works in the show, as well as one from celebrated innovator Dudley Charles. Derrick Henry, a Warau musical composer in addition to his many talents, displayed a mixed media sculpture: his own handmade cuatro that he demonstrated during the opening night reception recital.Charlene Wilkinson, organizer of Rufaro Centre who facilitated the exhibition along with Chung, emphasized reimagining borders between generations of artists, arts enthusiasts, and general publics. The welcoming atmosphere of Wilkinson's bottom-house gallery likely aided in the exhibition's successfully bringing together artists and audiences from a diverse cross-section of Guyanese. “It was like a supernova, the whole exhibition,” Thomas felt, adding that while “a lot of the artists are gone ... it's great to see the newcomers too.”7 For Cameron it was important to see the “classic artworks,” she explained, as was the opportunity to “mix with those older folks, the veterans, to talk with them. And while we're star-struck, they were also happy to meet us as well, and see our works, and offer their feedback.”8 We can only hope that similar creative initiatives bridging generational and other boundaries are in the stars for Guyana and its artists, within and beyond borders

Genealogy · Geography · Cross-Border Cooperation and Integration · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · History · Migration and Labor Dynamics

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