'Jiggyman' 2008, Giclee and acryic paint, 165cm / 111cm


People out of place

The ideas behind this project are rooted in the movement of people, specifically from Jamaica to the UK and vice versa. The intention is to explore the unique experience of displacement, assimilation and exclusion, wrapped up in duality of existence and identity. The work investigates and represents current generations who move back and forth from Jamaica to the UK. The project is natural and personal, focusing on the uncovering of dual identities confused by the conflict of emotion and raw realities. The representation of these journies, people and places is of historic and contemporary importance - something which I aim to bring to the surface in my work.

Multiculturalism has brought us to a new juncture here in the UK, which, it could be argued, requires visual stimuli to help inform new directions. Current generations of young people are now more aware than ever of the mix of nationality, race and culture
surrounding them. Adults alike are seeking new ways of making sense of these complicated issues. Exposing visual aspects of those people and locations involved, raises the issue of feeling ‘out of place’; at the same time highlighting the overlap of cultural, racial and physical spaces we inhabit and exist within.

Exploring these itinerant communities within British and Jamaican society reveals many
different signposts representing the past, present and future. Exposed is a generation searching for missing pieces of their cultural jigsaw, simultaneously finding acceptance and solace contrasted with rejection and torment. Such experiences are succinctly
encapsulated in the offspring of mixed marriages who feel ‘out of place’ both ‘here and there’.

February '09