Tuesday 22 May, 7.30 pm
Artist talk and presentation
In late May, UK-based Trinidadian contemporary artist
Karen McLean will be in
residence at Alice Yard. On Tuesday 22 May, she will give an informal talk discussing her investigations
of local vernacular architecture and the Cadbury Photo Archives, located in the UK, which have
allowed her to visually revisit connections between our colonial past and current realities.
During her time at Alice Yard, McLean will be doing research, sharing and discussing her ideas, and developing a new project in Trinidad. The artist’s visit is supported by the Arts Council England and National Lottery England.
 |
| Sweet Ethics is a site specific installation sited in Bournville, near Birmingham. This
project confronts the way in which philanthropist and businessman George
Cadbury is traditionally represented and by extension critiques the
ethics of capitalism. | |
“Relocating to England, I became interested in the
interconnected history of the two countries that I have lived in, and
the on-going effects of those historical connections.... Of particular interest to me is the vernacular architecture of
the Caribbean and the language that these structures express.... My interests in the Bournville archives stemmed from the discovery of a
picture of a hut online. I was actually situated in Bournville... it’s
where my university campus was, and I had been there for five years. I had
lived in Trinidad for 40 years and had never known that George Cadbury
had owned a cocoa estate in Santa Cruz — as a matter of fact he owned two,
Ortinola and La Mercia.”
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