“Call the Police. Call the Army. Call God. And Let's Have One Helluva Big Story”: On Writing Caribbean Art Histories After Postcoloniality

Are there intrinsic and unique ways of representing the “visual atmospherics” of the Caribbean? Might phenomenological studies of embodied perception offer insight into distinct forms of Caribbean visuality? How would contrapuntal interpretations of colonial archives result in a decolonizing art history? What are the larger stakes of these ways of reading Caribbean visual cultures, and what might they leave unseen? This article points to the need to radically interrogate and historically situate the object of art historical study in the region.