Gazing Outward and Looking Back: Configuring Caribbean Visual Culture

Recent political agitations across countries, including those in Southern Europe, the Middle East, South America, and North and Middle Africa, are further problematized by the perceived failure of "state multiculturalism" in Europe. European citizens of different cultures—such as the racialized "black" diasporic figure of African, Middle Eastern, Asian, South American, and Caribbean descent, now a significant urban population in Europe—are feeling the brunt of such regressive thinking. The contemporary backdrop for this essay emphasizes such contexts for future Caribbean studies and particularly for conceiving of Caribbean visual culture. It considers ways the exploration of Caribbean art practices and research of Caribbean visual culture might require reconsideration as global and interconnected structures requiring a transnational and intercultural approach. Insight of contemporary Caribbean visual culture is inextricably linked to circulation of knowledge and production of global culture and visual representation.