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Beyonct_the Boundaries artists from the caribbean godfried donkor T he relationship between England and h er former co lo nies in the ' new world' goes back to the seventee n th century. In time they came to be known as a 'common wea lth ' (s ic) o f n ations, o ne who se o n ly real com mon link is having o nce been a sou rce o f enor mous wealth for E ngla nd . G rowing up, I knew nothing of the extent to which there were colonial connections b etween people, pl aces and even ts such as the Transatlantic Sl ave Trade, coffee houses, tobacco plantations , Ll o yds of London and Sir Jack H awkins. A nd how each o f these w ere influential not only in the colonisation of the Caribbean, but also in the way the C a ribbea n has been positioned (and handicapped) in the space of g lobalisation. By the mid- 1990s, I w as still driven by certain preconceptions and ig no ra nce about the C a ribbean . II:I::IID Jo urnal of Contemporary African Art A ll I k new for su re was that, as far as the w hole region was concerned, "things fitted together interestingly". J For the most part, much o f the contemporary a rt w orld is oblivious and ignorant of the visual arts o f the Caribbea n . Exotic ised and m arginalised with such phrases as 'colorful ' , n arv e ", 'primitive', a nd 'pseudoEuropean ', a rt c rit ics w orking In England and o ther pl aces have not properly com p rehended a nd coritexrualised (w ithin a bro ader debate) what has been happening in the region. As a south L ondoner from Kumasi , Ghana, I w anted to connect m y visual en vironment to that o f contemporary vi sua l artists w orking in the C aribbean. This is an acco u n t of a rtis ts from Trinidad and Ja m ai ca w hose work has in certain respects e ntered the di scou rse of contemporary art practice in England. In Trinidad and Tobago, two o f the co ng lo merates o f islands that m ake up the C a ribbean, there are artists who se sole form and m edium is Mas, the elaborate m asquerade and costu me parade a t the heart o f o ne o f the reg ion's m ost important cultural activ ities , the a nn ual Carn ival. For m any a rtists living in Laventille, Diego Martin and St. James, their whole year is preo ccupied with o ne pursuit: pl aying M as in Feb ruary. Many begin 'scu lpting' thei r b odies abou t four m onths prior to thei r performance by training a t Port-o f- Spain 's fa mous Savan nah Park. This, in itself, is an inc redible vi sual experience. C h ris toph er Cozie r, Irenee Shaw a nd Steve O u d itt a re the la test of a generation o f conceptual artists working In Trinidad. The originators o f this tradition , people like A nna Serrao, W endy Narron, Johnny Stoll m eyer and Francesco C ab ral, are no w in vi si- b le to the island, " van i s h e d into p r i vacy , wi t h dr a wn , ret ired, e s c ape d to M i a m i " . 2 P o rt - o f - S pain is a c o s mo po lit an city, replet e wi t h s up e r m ar k e t s an d s h o p p i n g malls , dr ive - in c i n e m as an d b an ks , gan gs t e r , d r u g lo rds , gun f igh t s , m o n e y laun de r in g, c al yp s o an d c ar n i val . C o n...

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