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| Postcard Preservations, postcards , Oneika Russell, 2016 |
For ‘Digital’ , an exhibition being put on by The National Gallery of Jamaica, I created 3 satin banners and 2 postcard designs for The Gallery’s giftshop. Currently my work is about using collected artefacts of specific bits of visual culture which relate to the creation and crafting of cultural and national identity as well as popular representation of this identity in its various forms and for consumption by various audiences.
This work is specifically about looking at the 'sweetness' of images of ‘Paradise’ which I as the artist enjoy but am also conscious that are at odds with other realities and the dimensionality I experience as a native of one of these sites of 'Paradise'. I am using the postcards I have been collecting since the 1990s to draw attention to the one-dimensionality of how Jamaica presents itself on these postcards and is sold as an idea or memento of an experience. The work is not about criticizing the work of a photographer but rather to study an aspect of local visual culture.
Digital runs runs from April 24 to June 2016 and features the work of 39 artists from all over the Caribbean who are using digital media and processes in their practice. Other featured artists are: Ewan Atkinson; Sonia Barrett; Jacqueline Bishop; Kimani Beckford; Beverley Bennett; Ruben Cabenda; Larry Chang; Robin Clare; James Cooper; Di-Andre Caprice Davis; Pablo Delano; Cecile Emeke; Luk Gama; Gregory “Stennatt” Gordon; David Gumbs; Versia Harris; Horacio Hospedales; Katherine Kennedy; Prudence Lovell; Kelley-Ann Lindo; Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow; Olivia McGilchrist; Shane McHugh; Patricia Mohammed; Richard Nattoo; the New Media and Process Class, Edna Manley College; Sharon Norwood; Jik-Reuben Pringle; Gabriel Ramos; Richard Mark Rawlins; Sheena Rose; Danielle Russell; Oneika Russell; Nile Saulter; Henri Tauliaut; Phillip Thomas; Dione Walker; Rodell Warner, Arnaldo James and Darron Clarke; and Ronald Williams.
