The 59th Venice Biennale, From Afar – Part 2: The Caribbean at Venice
The representation of artists of Caribbean descent in the current 59th Venice Biennale is unprecedented in terms of prominence and critical reception. But, Caribbean and Caribbean diaspora artists have been represented on many occasions in the past, as artists selected for the central International Exhibition (which is curated by the Biennale’s lead curator for each edition) and in various national pavilion initiatives, usually rented pop-up spaces in various locations the city (including some of the city’s famous palazzi).
Tavares Strachan, to give a few examples, represented The Bahamas in 2013 and was also prominently featured in the International Exhibition in the 2019 edition. Cuban artists have been regularly featured in the International Exhibition and Cuba has presented several national pavilions, including in the current edition. Jamaica had a one-time pavilion in the 2001 Biennale which was organized by Margaret Bernal and curated by Catherine Amidon. It featured work by Albert Chong, Arthur Simms and Keith Morrison, three Jamaican artists who live in the USA (Simms will be featured in the 2022 Kingston Biennial at the National Gallery of Jamaica for what will be his first exhibition in Jamaica). Haiti had a pavilion in 2019 that featured Jean Ulrick Désert and was curated by Giscard Bouchoutte. And, Grenada has had a pavilion at several Biennale editions now. Arguably the most high-profile pavilion relevant to the Caribbean thus far is the Diaspora Pavilion which focuses on artists from the African Diaspora and had its first edition in 2019. While no Caribbean-born or -based artists were included, several of the featured artists had roots in the region. What each of these various efforts has achieved and whether it is in fact always worth having a small, out of the way pavilion in a biennial where there are so many competing, lavishly funded events and exhibitions is a question for another column.
Several Caribbean artists are included in this year’s International Exhibition, The Milk of Dreams which was curated by Cecilia Alemani. This exhibition features 213 artists from 58 countries, including the late Belkis Ayon from Cuba, Firelei Báez from the Dominican Republic, and the late Célestin Faustin as well as Frantz Zepherin and Myrlande Constant from Haiti, along with Simone Leigh from the USA who is of Jamaican parentage.
This year’s International Exhibition is unprecedented for several reasons. It is the first time that 180 of the selected artists are being featured in the Venice Biennale. Nearly 90 per cent of the artists are female or gender non-conforming – a far more dramatic shift away from representing the “usual suspects” than in any of the other recent Biennales. The International Exhibition also has a stronger historical focus than usual, and takes its title, The Milk of Dreams, from a work by the British-born Mexican Surrealist Leonora Carrington (1917-2011). It asserts an alternative lineage to the traditional, patriarchal art-historical narratives about Surrealism, in all its dimensions, and establishes its relevance to the present moment.
What is, however, most remarkable about the current Venice Biennale, at least from a Caribbean perspective, is that some of the most prominent and well-funded national pavilions in the Giardini, of the USA, the UK and Scotland, feature women artists of Caribbean descent: Simone Leigh, for the USA; Sonia Boyce, whose parents came from Barbados and Guyana, for the UK; and Alberta Whittle, who was born in Barbados, for Scotland, as was mentioned in part 1 of this column (published last week). Sonia Boyce furthermore won a Golden Lion for her pavilion and Simone Leigh got a Golden Lion for her monumental, 16-foot bronze sculpture Brick House (2019) in The Milk of Dreams, while also receiving an honourable mention for her pavilion. Alberta Whittle’s pavilion has also attracted critical acclaim. That all of this should happen, in one single edition of what is, after all, the most prestigious international biennial exhibition, suggests that there is a sea change in the politics of representation of the international art world and represents a deep challenge to its conventional hierarchies and narratives.
There is no doubt that the current Venice Biennale is a landmark moment, but the question inevitably arises regarding how deep these shifts and challenges really go and what their long-term effects will be. Are the changes seen in the recent editions of the Venice Biennale (and similar changes seen at international exhibitions such as Documenta, the Whitney Biennial, and the Berlin Biennial) the result a temporary and superficial moment of atonement for the cultural injustices of the past, or do they reflect potentially permanent changes? Or to put it differently, are the hierarchies and power structures of the international art world really changing, especially at the deeply influential but often less public visible level of funding, patronage, and the art market? A critical commentary by Kate Brown on Artnet.com (25 April 2022) suggested otherwise and pointed out that it was business as usual for the art world power brokers who attended the celebrity-studded VIP events that accompanied the Biennale opening week. Time will tell and it is obvious that a lot more sustained work needs to be done to broker more fundamental and lasting changes.
It is difficult to comment on the Simone Leigh and Sonia Boyce pavilions without having seen and experienced them but from what I have seen and read online it appears that both are extraordinary, so let me try.
Sonia Boyce immersive “sound and vision” installation, Feeling Her Way, pays tribute to female Black British musicians through the performances of Jacqui Dankworth, Poppy Ajudha, Sofia Jernberg, Tanita Tikaram, and composer Errollyn Wallen, who collaborated with her on her project. While these are female musicians who have each faced public neglect and exclusion, the dense sonic and visual environment created by Boyce powerfully asserts the aesthetic, cultural and political importance of their voices and forcefully challenges patriarchal, white-dominated narratives in the process.
Simone Leigh’s exhibition, Sovereignty, addresses similar issues, albeit in a very different way. As Leigh puts it: “To be sovereign is to not be subject to another’s authority, another’s desires, or another’s gaze but rather to be the author of one’s own history.” This ownership of one’s own history is asserted through several monumental bronze and ceramic and mixed media sculptures that command the spaces in which they are presented with a powerful, naturalized sense of presence. Leigh also transformed the US pavilion by adding a thatch roof and wooden columns, thus superimposing traditional African palace architecture on its quintessentially “white,” Enlightenment-type Palladian architecture. In doing so, she also alludes obliquely but critically to the historical association of art biennials such as the Venice Biennales to the World Fairs and their colonial foundations. Such staged recreations of “exotic buildings” and live “human zoo” displays of “ethnic cultures” were common in such World Fairs until the mid-twentieth century. Leigh’s installation may seem simple and straightforward in its message but there are many layers to unpack.
While I have never attended the opening week, I have had the opportunity to visit the Venice Biennale in the past and I can attest that it is a thrilling art experience, in what is undeniably one of the world’s most beautiful and historically resonant cities. If all goes well, I might visit again later this year, as it indeed seems like the 59th Venice Biennale is an event that is not to be missed. The Biennale continues until 27 November 2022.
Dr Veerle Poupeye is an art historian specialized in art from the Caribbean. She lectures at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts in Kingston, Jamaica, and works as an independent curator, writer, researcher, and cultural consultant. Her personal blog can be found at veerlepoupeye.com.
