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.