Reverb at Stephen Friedman Gallery

Stephen Friedman Gallery

Friday 22 November – Wednesday 18 December 2024

The exhibition Reverb at Stephen Friedman Gallery features vibrant new paintings, sound installations, sculptures, and mixed media works by eight acclaimed artists from the Caribbean and its Diaspora. Exploring themes of identity, ecology, botany, and the lasting impact of the transatlantic slave trade, the show highlights the richness and diversity of contemporary Caribbean art.

Inspired by Michael Veal’s (Professor of Ethnomusicology at Yale) concept of dub music’s reverberation, as a “sonic metaphor for the condition of diaspora,” the exhibition compares artistic practices emerging from Caribbean culture with the effects of dub music’s sonic waves.

Denzil Forrester’s colourful paintings capture the lively energy of London’s reggae and dub nightclub scene during the 1970s and 1980s. His painting Zulu Chant (2023–24) commemorates the iconic DJ Jah Shaka, depicting a crowded nightclub in rich tones of blue, orange, and purple. A related new drawing illustrates Cornwall’s emerging dub scene, where the Grenadian-born artist now lives.

Juxtaposed with Forrester’s work are the brightly coloured sculptures by French-Martinique artist Julien Creuzet, which are made from debris washed ashore. These suspended assemblages such as 'Dans nos yeux, words come from far away, from my ancestral memory, astral, sky, I’m not alone on the way anymore (rouge et jaune)', (2020-2024) reflect on the ecological harm tied to colonialism while transforming discarded materials into vibrant and playful forms of hope.

Nearby, the London-born artist of Jamaican descent, Charmaine Watkiss, presents five delicate drawings that thematise knowledge about the healing properties of plants brought to the Caribbean by West African women. Drawing on her research at the British Museum which includes documentation by Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753) made during his time as a medical doctor on Jamaican slave plantations, Watkiss portrays herself within these works on paper, all of which embody the ancestral knowledge of botany and the resilience of Caribbean women over generations.

Also conveying an interest in the natural world, Hulda Guzmán’s psychedelic self-portrait A Little Tune-Up (2024), depicts an out-of-body experience set against the tropical backdrop of her studio in the Dominican Republic. The scene includes her family members, pets, a giant flower and celestial representations of deceased relatives. This spiritual gathering reflects Guzmán’s conviction in the interconnectedness of all living things as part of an extensive ecosystem.

Suchitra Mattai’s large-scale textile work explores her ancestors’ migration from India to British Guiana as indentured labourers after the abolishment of slavery. Using domestic South Asian craft techniques passed down through generations of women and intertwining materials like vintage saris, beads, and gold tassels, her tapestry Set Free (2024) features a female body floating horizontally in the centre of the image, evoking the dislocation of the Indo-Caribbean immigrant experience.

Zinzi Minott, of Jamaican heritage, combines performance, film, and sound to explore migration narratives. For Reverb, she created WATASOUND (2024), a new sound installation that emanates through the exhibition space from loudspeakers in a corner. Interweaving political and private speeches, carnival field recordings, and the sounds of water with dub, bass and Dancehall rhythms, her work is concerned with diasporic journeys and calls for repatriation.

Scottish Barbadian artist Alberta Whittle’s two new textile collages reference ‘Drexciya’, an Afrofuturist tale about an underwater empire formed by the children of enslaved African women. Beneath the waves, we shapeshift (before I was a hermit) (2024), mounted on a door-like structure, painted in fluorescent colours and seemingly grounded by sandbags, depicts a relationship between a woman and a hermit crab, evoking notions of resilience, interconnectedness and transformation.

Also drawing on the imaginary and spiritualism and informed by her upbringing in Florida, Kathia St. Hilaire’s collages such as Azaka (2024) combine painting, weaving and printmaking. Inspired by her Haitian heritage, her work includes images of banana leaves which serve as offerings to Azaka, the Vodou spirit of agriculture.  St. Hilaire new oeuvre reflects on the so-called Parsley Massacre of 1937, honouring Haitians killed in the border region between Haiti and the Dominican Republic by military dictator Rafael Trujillo’s army.

Overall, Reverb offers a fresh perspective on Caribbean diaspora art by linking diverse artistic narratives to the sonic concept of reverb. Accompanied by a new text by writer and curator Rianna Jade Parker, the exhibition powerfully emphasises that Caribbean identity is not defined by nostalgic longing for a homeland but embracing constant movement and transformation beyond geographic borders. The featured artworks evoke a powerful sense of agency and critical thinking, that transcend location and demonstrate that being part of the Caribbean diaspora encompasses multiple ways of thinking, being, and creating art.

Christine Takengny, The Roden Senior Curator, Museums Acquisitions 

Stephen Friedman Gallery, 5-6 Cork St, London W1S 3LQ

Friday 22 November – Wednesday 18 December 2024