A conversation with Sasha Dees

Friday 2 December, 2011, at 7 pm

Sasha Dees is an independent curator and producer who lives and works between Amsterdam and New York. She has been a producer for numerous projects in all art disciplines and she was one of the pioneers in rebuilding the cultural exchange between the Netherlands and Suriname.

In addition to her own projects, in 2003 she and Philip Powel founded the not-for-profit organisation for the arts John106. Dees is also the co-developer and curator for the Open Ateliers Artist in Residence (OAZO-AIR) programme in Amsterdam.

In early December 2011, Dees will be based at Alice Yard on a short investigative residency, exploring the contemporary art scene in Port of Spain. On Friday 2 December, at 7 pm, she will give an informal talk at Alice Yard about her current projects and the OAZO-AIR programme.

All are invited.

“I dream to change the world”: celebrating the legacy of Martin Carter

Friday 14 October, 2011, from 7.00 to 9.00 pm


... if you see me
looking at your hands
listening when you speak
marching in your ranks
you must know
I do not sleep to dream, but dream to change the world.

The 30th West Indian Literature Conference, hosted by the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, from 13 to 15 October, 2011, borrows its theme from a poem by the late Guyanese writer Martin Carter: “I Dream to Change the World: Literature and Social Transformation”.

As part of the conference programme, on Friday 14 October, from 7.00 to 9.00 pm, the Bocas Lit Fest and Alice Yard will host an informal evening of readings and performances celebrating Carter’s intellectual and creative legacy. Scholar Gemma Robinson, Carter’s editor and biographer, will speak about his relevance for today’s Caribbean writers and artists, followed by readings by Nalo Hopkinson, Vahni Capildeo, and Barbara Jenkins. A performance by 3Canal will close the programme. Visual works by artists Marlon Griffth, James Cooper, and Rodell Warner will also be on view.

All are invited.

Charles Campbell- Actor/Transporter

ACT 5 - final action, reception & discussion
Sunday September 18th at 6pm - Alice Yard
( 4 - 5.30 pm - actual performance investigation - Wild Flower Park, P.O.S.)

Charles Campbell is among a new generation of contemporary Caribbean artists working to explore and disrupt the region’s dominant social narratives. He has exhibited widely in North America, the Caribbean, and Europe, representing Jamaica in events such as the Havana
Biennial and the Brooklyn Museum’s Infinite Islands exhibition. His work uses images culled from the Caribbean's history of slavery and emancipation to investigate the intersection between meaning and image and open up the possibility of personal and social transformation. He holds an MA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths College and currently lives and works in Canada.
His recent work has investigated and re-imagined the traditional Actor Boy character from the Jamaican Jonkonnu festival, a trickster figure and “agent of chaos and change.” Campbell writes: “Rather than remaining the character from Belisario’s print, a character from the past, I envision him as a character from one of the possible futures that was alive at the time of emancipation and a sort of embodiment of the coexistence of multiple futures.”

Looking at the Rational Utopianism of Buckminster Fuller as one of these multiple futures, Campbell has begun to create a series of three-dimensional spheres, drawing on Fuller’s geodesic domes: vehicles for the transport and circulation of people, ideas, and images, which “simultaneously excite different ways to understand something we see.” Campbell’s participation in ACT 5 is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.
Act 5 project statement here
See previous event pictures here & video
All are invited.

ACT 5: The Performative Moment

Opens Sunday 11 September, 2011, 5.30 to 8.00 pm



From the Helmet Series, by James Cooper


In September 2011, Alice Yard marks its fifth anniversary as an independent space for creative investigation, with a programme of events called ACT 5: The Performative Moment.

On Sunday 11 September, from 5.30 to 8 pm, Alice Yard hosts the opening of a show of live and documented actions by six artists: Ebony G. Patterson, Dhiradj Ramsamoedj, Charles Campbell, Hew Locke, James Cooper, and Marlon Griffith.

Actions in space and time operate at the juncture between remembered or conjured pasts and futures. Within this perpetual moment — remembered or recorded, privately or publicly enacted, never dependent on a fixed location or context — the contemporary, as an investigative visual enterprise, can be understood as more than just an inventory of cultural commodities or itinerant objects aspiring for visibility or institutional embraces. To many, this shifty and shifting lack of materiality is still seen as weakness when it comes to comparative or competitive questions of visibility and the historical record.

ACT 5 is simply a sequence in this ongoing process of transforming the value of our actions and the varied spaces in which we live and imagine. It is an alternative only to the way we may have forgotten aspects of our living past.

— Christopher Cozier

All are invited to attend the opening event and participate in this continuing dialogue. The ACT 5 installation can also be viewed on Monday 12 and Tuesday 13 September, from 5 to 7 pm, and by special arrangement. Contact helloaliceyard@gmail.com for more information.



Serpent of the Nile (2007), by Hew Locke, from the How Do You Want Me? series


Find out how you can support Alice Yard and ACT 5 here.

ACT 5: Dhiradj Ramsamoedj: Flexible Man

Saturday 3 September, 2011, at 9.30 am



Photographs by Christopher Cozier


In September 2011, Alice Yard will celebrate its fifth anniversary as an independent space for creative experiment. We mark the occasion with a programme of events that consider contemporary visual art’s engagement with performance: ACT 5.

As part of our anniversary programme, and continuing our ongoing participation in regional art dialogues, Alice Yard has invited a series of artists from the wider Caribbean to create site-specific actions.



The second of our anniversary artists-in-residence is Surinamese Dhiradj Ramsamoedj. During his time in Trinidad, he has continued his ongoing Flexible Man project by performing a series of public actions recorded with the help of artists Rodell Warner and Brianna McCarthy.

On Saturday 3 September, at 9.30 am, Ramsamoedj will present and discuss this work during an informal gathering at Alice Yard. All are invited to join in over a cup of coffee. This will also be an opportunity to meet our third anniversary artist-in-residence, Jamaican Charles Campbell.

About the artist:

Dhiradj Ramsamoedj is based in Paramaribo, where he graduated from the Nola Hatterman Art Academy in 2004. His work has been shown in two solo exhibitions, most recently Ordinary People Reloaded (2010) at the Readytex Gallery in Paramaribo; and in group exhibitions in Suriname, the Netherlands, and the United States, notably Paramaribo SPAN (2010) and Wrestling with the Image: Caribbean Interventions at the Art Museum of the Americas, Washington, DC (2011).

Ramsamoedj’s participation in ACT 5 is supported by the Readytex Art Gallery, Paramaribo.



Read Christopher Cozier’s notes on Ramsamoedj’s Adjie Gilas installation at the Paramaribo SPAN blog.

See a portfolio of images from Adjie Gilas with a brief essay by Nicholas Laughlin in the May 2010 Caribbean Review of Books.

Read Nicholas Laughlin’s short essay on Flexible Man in the April 2011 ARC.

Michelle Isava

Proyecto Zapato Viajero / Travelling Shoe Project
Open call / First Collection of Shoes: Trinidad
Tuesday 2nd August 12.00 - 9.00 pm.
















" We have been historically affected by migration; all in different ways. With this project I invite people to share their shoes as statements of where they have been and where they are going thus sharing movement and walking in each other's footsteps..."

The first stage of this project starts at Alice Yard. This will be the collection point in Trinidad. The collected shoes will be transported to Venezuela early the following morning. In Venezuela a similar call is being sent out to collect shoes to be brought over to Trinidad for the exchange. Once the shoes are exchanged, all actions and appropriations can be begin.

Tuesday 2nd August 12.00 -9.00 pm to drop off Shoes at Alice Yard
From 7. pm - 9. pm there will be open discussion to brainstorm and illustrate the possibilities of this exchange between all interested participants.

Once shoes are exchanged, the participant is responsible for what is done to the shoes.
The action is digitally documented and emailed to:
zapatoviajero.travellingshoe@gmail.com

The documentation would then be posted on to the blog to share the process as it happens. When all actions are completed all shoes will be collected for a travelling show.
See the blog here

Proyecto Zapato Viajero initiates the 2nd chapter of Alice Yard's Proximities dialogues

ACT 5: Ebony G. Patterson: 9 of 219

Monday 25 July, 2011, at 7.00 pm


In September 2011, Alice Yard will celebrate its fifth anniversary as an independent space for creative experiment. We mark the occasion with a programme of events that consider contemporary visual art’s engagement with performance: ACT 5.

As part of our anniversary programme, and continuing our ongoing participation in regional art dialogues, Alice Yard has invited a series of artists from the wider Caribbean to create site-specific actions.



The first of our anniversary artists-in-residence is Jamaican Ebony G. Patterson. On Monday 25 July, at 7 pm, she will present her work in progress 9 of 219. Both an installation and a performance, the work will stage a version of a “bling” funeral using the artist’s characteristic heavily decorated objects. Audience members are asked to participate by bringing candles to join in the vigil.

All are invited.

About the artist:

Born in Kingston in 1981, Ebony G. Patterson is a graduate of the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts in Jamaica and Sam Fox College of Art and Design at Washington University, St. Louis. She is currently assistant professor in painting at the University of Kentucky. She has exhibited her work in several solo shows in Jamaica and the United States, most recently Ebony G. Patterson: On the Wall and in the Gallery at the Monique Meloche Gallery in Chicago; and in group shows including Wrestling with the Image: Caribbean Interventions at the Art Museum of the Americas, Washington, DC; the 2008 and 2010 Jamaica National Biennials; Rockstone and Bootheel: Contemporary West Indian Art at Real Art Ways, Hartford, Connecticut; the 2009 Ghetto Biennale in Port-au-Prince; and You Are Here at Fondation Clément in Martinique. One of her digital photographic works was included in Shot in Kingston at Alice Yard in September 2010.

Read a conversation between Patterson and Oneika Russell at sx space.

Entourage (2010; digital print, 204.5 x 306 cm), by Ebony G. Patterson

A conversation with Joanna Crichlow and Brianna McCarthy

From the Blueprints series, by Joanna Crichlow

On Saturday 16 July, 2011, at 7.00 pm, artists Joanna Crichlow and Brianna McCarthy will discuss their recent work and their respective interests in portrayals of the female form, in a conversation moderated by Christopher Cozier at Alice Yard.

All are invited.

About the artists:

Joanna Crichlow is a Barbadian artist whose work explores what she calls “industrialised idealism”. A recent BFA graduate of Barbados Community College, she is currently artist in residence at Alice Yard.

Brianna McCarthy is a Trinidadian artist whose drawings and mixed media works investigate ideas of beauty and diversity. She was recently profiled in the April 2011 issue of ARC magazine.


Chocolate Lady, by Brianna McCarthy

Artist in residence: Joanna Crichlow

Mirror, Mirror, from the Blueprints series

Alice Yard is hosting Barbadian artist Joanna Crichlow for a two-week residency in early July 2011. A recent BFA graduate of Barbados Community College, Crichlow explores what she calls “industrialised idealism” and portrayals of the female body in her two-dimensional works. She will give a public talk about her practice and her experiences in Trinidad at a date to be announced.

This residency continues Alice Yard’s engagement with regional art dialogues, and follows past residencies and visits by Sheena Rose of Barbados, Heino Schmid and John Cox of the Bahamas, O’Neil Lawrence of Jamaica, Marcel Pinas of Suriname, and other artists from the wider Caribbean.

Richard Rawlins: Gotcha

23 to 24 June, 2011




Gotcha, a show of recent work by artist Richard Rawlins, will run at Alice Yard for two nights, Thursday 23 and Friday 24 June, 2011, from 7.00 pm. The second night of the show will include a performance by dancer/choreographer Dave Williams.

Rawlins writes:

“Gotcha can be considered a three-part examination of us. It continues my look at the shape of our Trinidad ‘politrix’ in the age of KAMALOT — the state of the Trinidad and Tobago under Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar — from a perspective that observes the festering anger of a new class of dissenters. We like to think that ‘tyre burning’ is relegated to one class of people in society, but the thing that fuels tyre burning as a tool of dissent is in all of us. It’s just bubbling under the surface.

“The show consists of a series of thirty paintings, some of which are of characters with over exaggerated lips and eyes representing our ‘watching and silent waiting and bubbling’ for something to happen. There is also an examination through a screenprint collaboration with artist Suzanne Nunez as well as buttons of a ubiquitous and lasting element of our Trinidad and Tobago culture, our picong, the ‘Megee’: the ‘five fingered fart’, the ‘fowl bottom’, that fools you again and again (coincidentally it ties in with other work in the show, symbolising our five-party coalition government, the People’s Partnership). Rounding it all up is a monograph featuring an introduction by artist/designer Adele Todd, a Megee musing by writer Tracy Hutchings, an essay on art and politics by Andre Bagoo and a number of new and ongoing design explorations of our age of KAMALOT and our unresolved NAPA ‘tabanca’.”

Low Lives 3 International Festival of Live Networked Performances

Live stream from Alice Yard tonight
Friday April 29th from 8-12pm.

April 29 – 30, 2011
Produced and Curated by Jorge Rojas
Co-produce by Chez Bushwick

About Low Lives 3
Low Lives 3 is the third installment in a series of annual international art events. Low Lives 3 features more than fifty live performance-based works over two days, each transmitted over the web and projected in real time at 24 venues across the globe.

Participating Artists
Annie Abrahams / Lukas Avendaño / Chloe Bass + Brian Balderston / Camille Baker / Tzitzi Barrantes / Rachelle Beaudoin / Black & Jones / Caroline Boileau / Catherine Cabeen and Company / Jennifer Chan / Tyrone Davies / Joseph DeLappe / dev01ded / Alfred Dong / Nancy Douthey / Eosin (Diana Combo) / Julie Fotheringham + Jarryd Lowder / Second Front / Scapegoat Garden (Deborah Goffe) / Carlos Gonzalez / Katelena Hernandez / Ajeesh K.B. + Santhosh V.S. + Hemabharathy Palani / Jayson Keeling / La La La Singers / Gabriela León + Saúl López Velarde + Daniel Weinstock / Shaun El C. Leonardo / Anya Liftig / Kristin Lucas / James Mbunju and Company / Saul Melman / Marcello Mercado / Jui Mhatre + Jaee Joshi / Julio Cesar Morales + Juan Luna-Avin / Irvin Morazan + Maya Jeffereis / Kendall Nordin / Molly O'Connor (Molliver) / Julian Palacz + Bernhard Garnicnig / So Percussion / SaBa / Marisol Salanova / Rosa Sanchez + Alain Baumann / Byd Sarret / Jenny Schlief / Carmen Sober / Alan Sondheim / Nathan Stevens / Zornitsa Stoyanova (Here[Begin]Dance) / Channel TWo / Frans van Lent / Claude van Lingen / Ginna Alejandra Vélez Carrasco / Rodell Warner / Ian Warren / Heather Warren-Crow / Rebecca Weiner / Paul Wiersbinski /

Presenting Partners
Alice Yard / Aljira, A Center for Contemporary Art / Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts / AE District / Box 13 / Center for Performance Research / Chez Bushwick / Co-lab / Crossing Art Gallery / Diaspora Vibe Gallery / DiverseWorks / Elon University Department of Art & Art History / Fusebox Festival / Headspace / Konic Thtr / La Periferia / La Perrera / Living Arts / MACO, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca / Mascher Space Co-op / Mindpirates / Obsidian Arts / On the Boards / Portland Institute for Contemporary Art / QMAD, Queens Media Art Development / Real Art Ways / Simba Theatre Art International / SOMArts / the temporary space / Utah Museum of Fine Arts / Village Museum / WORM Vienna /
Watch Low Lives 3 online:
www.ustream.tv/channel/low-lives-3

see Web Catalogue here

ARC magazine Trinidad launch

Wednesday 27 April, 2011, at 7 pm
In partnership with the Bocas Lit Fest

Image by Brianna McCarthy

Launched in January 2011 by artists Holly Bynoe and Nadia Huggins of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, ARC is “a Caribbean art and culture magazine dedicated to highlighting emerging and established artists.”

Alice Yard is pleased to host the Trinidad launch of ARC on Wednesday 27 April, from 7 to 9 pm. The programme includes an exhibition of works by artists featured in the magazine and spoken word performances. Both editors will be present, and copies of the second issue of ARC, fresh off the press, will be available for sale. This event is part of the 2011 Bocas Lit Fest, the first annual Trinidad and Tobago Literary Festival.

All are invited.

Read an interview with Bynoe and Huggins published at Antilles, the Caribbean Review of Books blog, in January 2011.

See the full programme of events for the 2011 Bocas Lit Fest here.

High science: a conversation with J. Brent Crosson

Tuesday 29 March, 2011, at 7 pm


J. Brent Crosson is a doctoral candidate in cultural anthropology at the University of California and a researcher affiliated with the University of the West Indies, St Augustine. He is currently in Trinidad and Tobago on an eighteen-month Fulbright research grant. From November 2010 to February 2011, he was based at Alice Yard.

He describes his research:

“My broader project examines spirits as cultural archives, especially for mute or concealed histories, where embodied practice is the method for remembering. I am also interested in Trinbagonian perceptions of superstition — who or what counts as obeah — and the relation of these perceptions to modernity and postcolonialism. Finally, I am looking at how ‘high science,’ as sorcery is sometimes known in the Caribbean, relates to the science that emerged out of the Enlightenment in its approach to materiality.”

On Tuesday 29 March, 2011, at 7 pm, Crosson will give a presentation at Alice Yard on his current fieldwork. There will also be an opportunity for members of the audience to engage him in dialogue. His talk will focus on his fieldwork in Moruga on the south coast of Trinidad:

“From the mass hysteria/demonic possession at the local secondary school to the descent of helicopters and military personnel to the town savannah, the first week I spent in Moruga was punctuated by events that conjured the place of this region in the national imaginary. These two events, especially the former, stirred local and national debates regarding the relation of belief in supernatural forces, on the one hand, and rural economic livelihoods, on the other, to postcoloniality, development and modernity. My research examines the complex relations and convergences between religion and rationality, spiritual and psychological forces, modernity and belief, and rural and urban spaces that these events in Moruga conjured.”

All are invited.


Crosson can be contacted at jcrosson@ucsc.edu.

Celebrating Independent Mas

Friday 25 March, 2011, at 7 pm



Robert Young and Lupe Leonard of Vulgar Fractions will host an evening celebrating contemporary independent mas at Alice Yard. Featuring slideshows of images from Carnival 2011 and live entertainment, the event will include visual contributions from:

Cat in Bag Productions: Snake in the Grass
Vulgar Fractions: Coalition
Alice Yard Players: When Arima Rained
Generation Lion Jouvay: Cleanse
Mas Jumbies: Bourgeois

The Cloth 25 + Alice Yard Pop-up Shop, featuring clothing and design objects by Trinidadian designers, will also be open.

All are invited.

A conversation with Shani Mootoo

Thursday 24 March, 2011, at 7 pm


Shani Mootoo is an internationally acclaimed writer, artist, and experimental filmmaker. Born in Dublin of Trinidadian parents, she grew up in San Fernando and now resides in Canada. She is currently writer in residence at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine.

She is the author of three novels: Cereus Blooms at Night (1996), He Drown She in the Sea (2005), and Valmiki’s Daughter (2008), as well as a collection of short stories and a book of poems. Her films have been screened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and at the Venice Biennale.

On Thursday 24 March, 2011, at 7 pm, Mootoo will read from her recent work at Alice Yard, and talk about her writing process and creative concerns. The programme will also include a screening of several of her short film works. Copies of her books will be available for purchase.

This event is a collaboration with Paper Based Bookshop.

All are invited.

Greta Mendez and Akuzuru: What Lies Beneath the Skirt of Globalisation? and A Poem for Desi

Thursday 17 March, 2011, at 7.00 pm



From a performance by Greta Mendez in Shimla, India, during Art Karavan International 2010

What Lies Beneath The Skirt of Globalisation? and A Poem For Desi are two performance works which integrate sculptural installation and movement to establish form.

Over the Carnival season, artists Akuzuru and Greta Mendez have been meeting at Alice Yard to construct and develop a collaborative narrative work, incorporating mixed multimedia and movement. Playing to their strengths, Akuzuru has contributed the installation and design, and Mendez the concept and text.

They write:

“The convoluted narratives of both works are connected by the interrogation and analysis of the human condition through the web of those persistent artificial webs and matrices that shroud the consciousness of the everyday.

“A visceral presentation that challenges the gaze of external participation, this multi-sensorial projection offers to restore the dormant calamity that plagues the mind.”

Running time: 1 hour, 10 minutes



From Vein (2009), a performance work by Akuzuru

About the artists:

Greta Mendez is a performance artist, dancer, producer, director, carnivalist, and choreographer. Originally hailing from Fyzabad, Trinidad, she moved to London very early in her life to expand her horizons in dance. Over her forty-year career she has performed and choreographed worldwide, including projects in Greece, India, Italy, and China. She has received the BP & National Westminster Dance and Mime Award, a New York International Film and Video Award, a Dance Fellowship from the Greater London Arts Council, and been awarded a Travel Bursary by the Arts Council. In April 2009, she presented her performance work Ndulgence at Alice Yard.

In 2010 Mendez participated in Art Karavan International, an initiative developed by Indian artist Inder Salim. She joined the Karavan in Shimla and journeyed on to Jammu, Srinagar, and Delhi. The central premise was to involve local Indian and international artists, to find a vehicle for common expression and common ground.
In her forthcoming Alice Yard presentation, she will share some of the work created, tell a few anecdotes, and introduce the work of artists from India, Serbia, and China.

Akuzuru is an experiential artist known for her many multi-layered performances and large sculptural-installation works, which have been shown internationally at venues in the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Interdisciplinary in approach, she creates intense experiences, working primarily in the natural environment in site-specific situations. She has presented and exhibited her work at Notting Hill Carnival in London, LIFT-London International Festival of Theatre, the 2nd Biennale de Martinique, and the Rockstone & Bootheel exhibition at Real Art Ways in Hartford, Connecticut. She has received a Commonwealth Fellowship Scholarship to Nigeria and a Commonwealth International Artist Residency to India, among other awards. In November 2009 she presented her installation and performance work Vein at Alice Yard.

All are invited.

Alice Yard Players: When Arima Rained

Detail of costume from When Arima Rained

“When Arima rained, soul-dears from the constellation of life showered breaths of light from a colourful night sky.”

Since 2007, siblings Lupe and Sean Leonard have produced a children’s Carnival masquerade band based at Alice Yard. Every presentation has attempted to sensitise young people to their environment, Trinidad and Tobago, by drawing reference to the culture, geography, flora, and fauna of their homeland. The costumes incorporate found and recycled objects from the natural and man-made environment.

The Alice Yard Players’ 2011 presentation is called When Arima Rained. Arima — which means both “place of the beginning” and “water” — is an indigenous Amerindian place name for what is now a large town in eastern Trinidad. The band’s mythical narrative attempts to bring these two definitions together, in three elements:


Canopy: Spectrum — The Night Cloud

Players: Soul-dears of Light

Character: Arima Night


For further details:

http://nimblett.no-ip.biz/kiddies/
Email: lupeleonard@hotmail.com
Telephone: (868) 490-8853

Vulgar Fraction: Coalition

Carnival 2011



Photographs by Arnaldo James

Vulgar Fraction, the independent mas band led by designer Robert Young of The Cloth, launched its Carnival 2011 presentation, Coalition, at Alice Yard on Tuesday 25 January. Coalition is a collaboration between Young and designer Lupe Leonard.

The designers explain:

“Coalition represents a pact or treaty among individuals or groups, within which they co-operate in joint action. While each individual serves his own interest at times, they have all come together for a common cause. However, since the alliance may have been formed as a matter of convenience, it may last only temporarily.”

Leonard has been producing children’s mas for approximately five years, while Young has maintained an almost fifteen-year presence “on the road” for Carnival.

“Vulgar Fraction has consistently advocated a return to true creativity, art and design for masqueraders”, says Young. “But the process becomes even more interesting when each person gets involved in designing and building part of their own costume themselves.”

Vulgar Fraction will provide potential masqueraders with a variety of design components they can use to decorate their costumes themselves — a practice similar to elements of the sailor mas tradition. (For further information, contact Robert Young at 471-2041.)

The Alice Yard launch included music by 3canal, Moyenne, tilla the sound boi killer, and North West Laventille Cultural Movement.

Wrestling with the Image

21 January to 10 March, 2011, at the Museum of the Americas, Washington, DC



Wrestling with the Image: Caribbean Interventions is an exhibition of contemporary art from twelve Caribbean countries, curated by artist and Alice Yard co-director Christopher Cozier and art historian Tatiana Flores. It opened at the Art Museum of the Americas in Washington, DC, on 21 January, 2011, and runs until 10 March.

The participating artists include several from Alice Yard’s creative network or who have shown their work at Alice Yard in recent years. The exhibition e-catalogue, with essays by Cozier and Flores, designed by Richard Rawlins and published by Draconian Switch, can be downloaded here.



View of one of the galleries at Wrestling with the Image, featuring work by (on walls, left to right) Phillip Thomas of Jamaica, Jean-Ulrick Désert of Haiti/Germany, Rodell Warner of Trinidad and Tobago, and (floor) Marcel Pinas of Suriname. Photograph by Nadia Huggins



Toussaint et George (2010), by Nikolai Noel, from Wrestling with the Image. Courtesy the artist



Work by (left to right) Tonya Wiles of Barbados and Ebony Patterson of Jamaica. Photograph by Nadia Huggins

Mobile Portrait Studio: Lara Stein Pardo and Rodell Warner

Friday 14 January, 2011, at 7.30 pm



From Mobile Portrait Studio, Port of Spain, January 2011


Mobile Portrait Studio, a project by Lara Stein Pardo, considers people, public spaces, performance, and personal interaction in relationship to the role of portraiture, art-making, memory, and historical narratives. Mobile Portrait Studio ran in two locations in Miami in December 2010. The Port of Spain version is a collaboration between Stein Pardo and Rodell Warner.

On 11 January, 2011, Stein Pardo and Warner made a series of portraits of passersby on Ariapita Avenue in Woodbrook. In the second stage of their collaboration, they will operate the Mobile Portrait Studio at Alice Yard on Friday 14 January from 7.30 pm. Volunteer participants can have their portraits taken and will receive a free print. The images will be digitally preserved as part of a larger series of artworks.

Stein Pardo and Warner will also screen the portraits taken on 11 January, and engage in a conversation about the project, their other recent work, and their interest in portraiture.

All are invited.

About the artists:

Lara Stein Pardo is an artist and PhD candidate in sociocultural anthropology at the University of Michigan. She is currently a visiting researcher in the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Miami and artist-in-residence at the Deering Estate in Cutler Bay. Her artwork, research, and writing revolve around place, gender, race, ethnicity, art, and artistic practice in the US and the Caribbean. She works in the medium of photography, installation, performance, and short film.

Rodell Warner is an artist and designer. His recent work includes the interactive installation Photobooth during Erotic Art Week 2009 and 2010, and the ongoing portrait series Closer. Other work in progress is documented at his blog, Free Paper. He is a member of Alice Yard’s network of creative collaborators.

From Mobile Portrait Studio, Miami, December 2010

A conversation with Richard Fung

Tuesday 11 January, 2011, at 7.30 pm



Still from Rex vs. Singh (2008)

Richard Fung is a Trinidad-born, Toronto-based video artist and writer. His single channel videos and projections have been widely exhibited and collected internationally, and his articles have been published in numerous journals and anthologies. He is the co-author with Monika Kin Gagnon of 13: Conversations on Art and Cultural Race Politics. Fung has been a Rockefeller Fellow at New York University, and a visiting professor at the Mass Communication Research Centre at Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi. He teaches at OCAD University.

On Tuesday 11 January, Fung will give a talk at Alice Yard about his recent projects and current work in progress. The event will include a screening of Fung’s recent video work Rex vs. Singh (2008; 29:25 minutes), made in collaboration with Ali Kazimi and John Greyson.

In 1915, two Sikh mill-workers, Dalip Singh and Naina Singh, were entrapped by undercover police in Vancouver, British Columbia, and accused of sodomy. This experimental video stages scenes from their trial, told four times: first as a period drama, second as a documentary investigation of the case, third as a musical agit-prop, and fourth, as a deconstruction of the actual court transcript. Rex vs. Singh was commissioned by the Queer History Project of Out on Screen, Vancouver Queer Film Festival.

All are invited.

For more information about the artist, see: www.richardfung.ca.