Solving Caribbean Mysteries: Art, Embodiment and an Eye for the Tropics

This article discusses various perspectives on image-making in the Anglophone Caribbean with reference to the economy of relations between its visitors and inhabitants during the modern colonial period and its aftermath. It evaluates the framework of the “tropical picturesque“ as a locus of embodied visual practices–with a significant, if often mysterious past–and debates Krista A. Thompson's notion of an “eye for the tropics” by reference to recent art historical insights drawn from fieldwork in Trinidad.