Artist Statement

Presence, absence, non-existence … three states of being that often revolve around particular groups, Diasporas, and demographics within culture. The complexities of life in post-postcolonial Jamaica traverses so much of these states of being and occasionally blurs these socio-political lines, causing a kind of class catastrophe. These catastrophes result in fits of violence and social unrest, but more subtly, the sort of violence that presents itself within the norms and forms of civility. Jamaica has been marketed to the world as paradise. A place of bliss and sheer exotic splendor. The sort of place one would film a James Bond movie (Dr. No, 1962: first of the Bond film franchise). This bliss is no doubt an exotic gaze, the case of the non-Jamaican looking in and having very strict expectations of the culture. These expectations are so much a part of the traditions of orientalism, the means of not necessarily looking and learning about a people but more so an imposition garnished from an expectation. Confusion then occurs when the populous adapts the external gaze and thus engages in a kind of national fetishism masquerading as patriotism.

The inability to see the person before the citizen, the land before the location, the habits before the culture has caused significant erosion within the fabric of the society. At some point one must realize the perils of such culture/products, such “stabilized expectations.” These images then present the problems of the gaze, and both internally and externally deny the expectation of such exotic gazes. This, I believe, forces the viewer to see the subtlety of the problem, stripped from its predictable national “catch-phrase” and cultural branding and thus presents the civility intertwined with sheer socio-political violence.

Phillip Thomas, Matador Revisited (2012) Mixed media on canvas (two panels, each 87” x 54”)

Photographed by Franz Marzoka, 2012

Phillip Thomas, Matador Study (2012) Mixed media on canvas (27” x 37”)

Photographed by Franz Marzoka, 2012

Phillip Thomas, Matador Profile Study (2012) Mixed media on canvas (27” x 20”)

Photographed by Franz Marzoka, 2012

Phillip Thomas, Red Carpet 1 (2010) Mixed media on canvas (87” x 54”)

Photographed by Michael Elliott, 2010

Phillip Thomas, An Upper St. Andrew Concubine (2012) Mixed media on canvas (left and right panels 88” x 56”; center panel 88” x 106”)

Photographed by Marlon James, 2012