By: Staff Writer
January 23, 2024
A new anthology on Caribbean paintings will launch this coming Saturday in Trinidad and Tobago that seeks to share knowledge with the general reader.
Dr. Marsha Pearce, editor of “Black Light Void: Dark Visions of the Caribbean” told Caribbean Magazine Plus that she is looking forward to the official launch this coming Saturday and “celebrating the work of the artists (visual and literary) in the book.”
Dr Pearce also said: “The project began in late 2017 when artist Edward Bowen had a solo exhibition of large paintings at Y Art Gallery in Trinidad. The show was titled “Stories.” I invited local writers to choose a painting at the exhibition and respond to it in the form of a short story.”
This new book is an anthology of paintings by Trinidadian contemporary artist Edward Bowen, and six short-story responses to Bowen’s work, written by Trinidadian, award-winning writers Kevin Jared Hosein, Barbara Jenkins, Sharon Millar, Amílcar Presi Sanatan, Portia Subran and Elizabeth Walcott-Hackshaw.
Dr Pearce went on to describe that the writers didn’t just capture the essence of the paintings. “The stories don’t just describe the paintings. Their stories are in conversation with the paintings. The book is a dialogue of images and words and it invites the reader to enter that dialogue by considering what personal stories come up for readers interacting with the book. So I was/am not interested in ‘essence’.”
She added: “In my research as a visual culture scholar, I’ve explored and written about how images and words interact. I am also an art curator. I select and exhibit artworks as a way of sharing knowledge. The book, in a sense, is a curated space. Yes, you can call it an anthology as it comprises writing by different authors.”
Dr Pearce is a Cultural Studies scholar based in Trinidad and Tobago. Her research interests lie in the areas of contemporary art, mass media, museum studies and conceptualisations and practices of place and space.