The World Reimagined: Caribbean Artist Residency
Sour Grass was invited last year to collaborate with the UK-based project, The World Reimagined, to select a cohort of five Caribbean artists who would bring to life the reality and impact of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Journeying through nine provocative themes which provide an opportunity to reimagine our past, present and future, this national art education project offers a way to constructively explore and recognise relationships to the Transatlantic Slave Trade and its impact on Britain.
As part of the project, each of the cities involved: Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool City Region, London, and Swansea will host one of the Caribbean based artists who will engage with community members and share their own perspective and artistic experience on working with this subject matter and the transformative power of art. Each artist brings with them a rich and powerful narrative – a story that is connected to the Journey of Discovery and which will be reflected on a Globe design. Helping nurture meaningful exchange and the layered nature of history and themes of memory, their art is a thing of beauty and inspiration.
Funded by Arts Council England, the artist residences will deliver significant, proven community benefit to the host cities between May and June 2022.
Carol is an artist and designer who works mostly with textiles. Her work is infused with natural plant dyes and printed with botanical artwork and explores the connection between landscape, place and the entangled nature of botanical history and related cultural heritage. Some of the plants and dyes used in her work highlight colonial histories of trade and exploration between Britain and the Caribbean which speak to society today. Carol completed her residency at Wysing Arts Centre and Hospitalfield.
Ras is a Barbadian painter. A graduate of the Edna Manley School of Art in Jamaica, his work is heavily influenced by the Rastafari movement. Ras is doing his residency in Liverpool from 17 May to 5 June.
Tamika Galanis (The Bahamas)
Tamika is a documentarian and multimedia visual artist. A Bahamian native, Tamika’s work examines the complexities of living in a place shrouded in tourism’s ideal during the age of climate concerns. Emphasising the importance of Bahamian cultural identity for cultural preservation, Tamika documents aspects of Bahamian life not curated for tourist consumption to intervene in the historical archive. Tamika is doing her residency at Delfina Foundation until 22 May 2022. While in residence at Delfina Foundation, Tamika will be mining local archival collections for photos of the colonial Bahamas along with documentation leading up to emancipation.
The World Reimagined will see trails of large globe sculptures in cities across the UK in May-July 2022. Included in the group of artists are Jasmine Thomas-Girvan (Jamaica/Trinidad & Tobago), Carol Sorhaindo (Dominica), Ras Akyem Ramsay (Barbados), Rodell Warner (Trinidad & Tobago) and Tamika Galanis (The Bahamas)
Jasmine is a sculptor, trained in jewellery and textile design, she received her BFA from Parsons School of Design in New York. Drawing from Caribbean history, myth, ritual, literature, and her own experience, her work has evolved from intimately sized, often wearable objects to large-scale installations with multimedia elements. Jasmine started her residency at Wysing, and is now at Cove Park until 23 May 2022.
Rodell is an artist working primarily in new media and photography. His works have been exhibited at The Whitney Museum of American Art in 2016 and at The National Gallery of Jamaica in 2016 exhibition Digital. Rodell is a recipient of the 2011 Commonwealth Connections International Arts Residency. He lives and works between Port of Spain in Trinidad, Kingston in Jamaica, and Austin, Texas, in the US. Rodell is doing his residency at Blast Theory from 23 May – 12 June and then will move onto Cove Park and will do his residency there until 3 July 2022.
