Joscelyn E. Gardner

Born: October 6, 1961

Detail of "Veronica frutescens (Mazerine)" hand-painted stone lithograph on frosted mylar 36” x 24” Date:2009, Location: Artist\'s collection Part of a suite of lithographs entitled “bringing down the flowers…” which aims to subvert 18th century documentation practices. A series of inverted heads with Afro-centric hairstyles are embedded with iron collars and tropical plant specimens in order to allude to the punishable practice of ‘natural\' abortion used by slave women as a form of protest against slavery. « previous image next image »

Website: www.joscelyngardner.com

Occupation: Artist & Professor of Fine Art

Art Education:

School: Queen's College, Barbados Date: 1973 - 1980 College/University: Queen's University, Canada Date: 1980 - 1985   University of Western Ontario Date: 2001 - 2003

Residencies attended:

Khojkolkata, India Date: 2006   Caribbean Contemporary Arts, Trinidad Date: 2005

Fellowships awarded:

Mary Routledge Fellowship, University of Western Ontario   Barbados Scholarship Date: 1980

Professional Associations:

Southern Graphics Council, USA

Statement

Using artifacts found in museum collections as a source for examining social narratives on 18th and 19th century Caribbean plantations, my visual practice probes the construction of female Creole identity from a postcolonial feminist perspective. Working primarily with printmaking and site-specific multimedia installation, I aim to subvert methods of documentation used by artists and writers to record Atlantic culture in order to point to the colonial construction of this identity as Other and assert a space for the multiple female subjectivities not recognized in the ‘official’ (male) historical canon. My visual practice negotiates a legitimate space for my own (white) Creole female voice. I reclaim the historical use of the cultural term, ‘Creole’ (someone born in the Caribbean), to define (white) identity in the contemporary Caribbean and to complexify this identity as being unique from, though related to, (white) Western identity, through its intertwined historical bond with black identity. By exploring the hybrid identity of Caribbean whites, I show that a shared geopolitical and cultural history can shape identity beyond the confines of the assumed racial determinants in established Western theory. Though grounded in the Caribbean’s historical / cultural specificity, my project points to the wider issue of white Western postcolonial guilt and aims to subvert the notion that colonialism’s effects are solely an issue of the Other. Click here to download the White Skin Black Kin Catalogue

Keyworks:

“bringing down the flowers…”, 2009, suite of lithographs on frosted mylar, edition 10, artist’s collection   CREOLE PORTRAITS II: “A Collection of Singular & Scarce Creole Portrait Heads to perpetuate the Memory of the WOMEN of EGYPT ESTATE in JAMAICA”, 2007, wall installation (suite of stone lithographs on frosted mylar; vinyl wall elements), edition 5- Artist's collection   Plantation Poker: The Merkin Stories, 2004, suite of stone lithographs / vinyl on frosted mylar, edition 3- Artist's collection   White Skin, Black Kin: A Creole Conversation Piece, 2003, multimedia installation (2 DVD projections, 5 soundtracks, doll, mahogany armchair, historical painting reproduction), edition 3- Artist's collection   Creole Portraits, 2002-03, suite of 10 stone lithographs on frosted mylar, edition 2, US Embassy collection, 2nd edition lost.   In the Chamber of my Birth: A Repeating Voyage to My Self, 1998, installation (sculptures from wood, plaster, wax; metal supports; sand; fabric), artist’s collection   In the Temple of my Skin, 1997, multimedia installation (slide projections, sound, bamboo/fabric sculptures, sand)- Artist's collection   Virtual Omphalos, 1996, multimedia installation (400 slides, 8 projection units, soundtrack, plaster sculptures, earth, gravel, light bulb)- Artist's collection   Spirit of Woman, 1994, multimedia installation (lights, sound, suite of woodcut prints on handmade paper, wood supports, hammocks, paper sculpture), destroyed   Piranha Maidens, 1994, suite of 4 linocut relief prints on handmade paper-artist’s collection and Alison Chapman-Andrews’ collection

Exhibitions (Group):

2009, Global Caribbean, curated by Edouard Duval-Carrie, Haitian Cultural Arts Alliance, Miami, USA; Musee International des Arts Modestes, Sete, France (2010)   2009, Rockstone and Bootheel: Contemporary West Indian Art, curated by Kristina Newman-Scott and Yona Backer, Real Art Ways, Hartford, USA   2007, Infinite Island: Contemporary Caribbean Art, curated by Tumelo Mosaka, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York, USA   2006, International Print Triennial Krakow 2006, Krakow, Poland   1996, Virtual Omphalos, 23rd International Biennial of Sao Paulo (country representation, Barbados, curated by Andrea Wells), Sao Paulo, Brazil

Exhibitions (Solo):

2009, Missionary Position, SNAP Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada   2005, White Skin, Black Kin, InterAmericas Space, CCA7, Trinidad   2005, Braided Narratives, Open Studio, Toronto, Ontario, Canada   2005, Peau Blanche, Parente Noire,Galerie ARSENEC, CMAC a l’Atrium, Fort de France, Martinique   2004, White Skin, Black Kin: “Speaking the Unspeakable”, an Intervention into four galleries at the Barbados Museum, Barbados

Publications (Written):

Subverting Colonial Portraiture: a Memorial to the Women of Egypt Estate. Small Axe: a Journal of Criticism. No. 26. New York: Indiana U P Date: 2008   Subverting a Caribbean ‘Natural’ History. Visible Language 42.1. After the Grave: Language and Materiality in Contemporary Art. Rhode Island School of Design, USA Date: 2008   < bridgetown >whisperpost: Mapping a Caribbean City’s Pulse. < bridgetown > whisperpost CD catalogue and website. Barbados: National Art Gallery Committee Date: 2007   White Skin, Black Kin: “Speaking the Unspeakable”. Barbados: Barbados Museum & Historical Society Date: 2004   Whose Mirror Image? Small Axe: a Journal of Criticism. No. 6. Jamaica: University of the West Indies P Date: 1999

Publications (Discussed):

1. Noyce, Richard. Critical Mass: Printmaking Beyond the Edge. London, UK: A & C Black Publishers Date: 2010   Mahon, Patrick. Not to Look Away. Braided Narratives brochure. Toronto: Open Studio Date: 2005   Nelson, Charmaine. Black Hair / Her-Stories and Joscelyn Gardner’s Inverted Portraits, FUSE, Vol. 27, No. 3. Toronto Date: 2004   Chapman-Andrews, Alison. Joscelyn Gardner. Artheme, Art Contemporain Caraibe, revue trimestrielle. No. 14. Martinique: Artheme, Date: 2004   Cummins, Alissandra, Allison Thompson, and Nick Whittle. Barbadian Art: What Kind of Mirror Image? Jamaica: Ian Randle Publishers Date: 1999

Commissions (Public):

2009, “words…just words…”, site-specific video installation for Black Diaspora Visual Arts Project, Public Library, Bridgetown   1999, Millennium Mural Painting, James Street Church (dome), Bridgetown

Commissions (Private):

1986-88, Richard Goddard Collection, commissioned series of historical watercolour paintings of Burnt House Plantation, Barbados

Collections (Public):

National Art Gallery Collection, Barbados   U.S Embassy's Collection, Barbados

Collections (Private):

CLICO Collection of Caribbean Art, Trinidad   Fundacion de Art Nouveau, Dominican Republic   TEOR/eTica, Costa Rica   Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), Rome, Italy

Awards:

Ontario Arts Council Visual Artist Mid-Career Grant Date: 2009   Canada Council for the Arts Travel Grant (Artist Residency in India) Date: 2006   Canada Council for the Arts International Residency Grant Date: 2005   National First Prize, First Ladies of the Americas Art Competition Date: 1993   Art Collection Foundation Purchase Award; LIAT Award Date: 1985