Kingston on the Edge

Exploring identity can be a complex exercise. The exhibition Bricolage of Identities now showing at the Olympia Gallery in Kingston uses the body as a point of entry. The artists, Carol Crichton, Garfield Morgan, Mortimer McPherson and Gisele Gardner come to the human form with different perspectives and techniques. Crichton embellishes her own body prints with characteristic collage and markings while Morgan's more densely massed, dark imagery depicts female bodies that are disturbing in their facelessness. McPherson creates more conventional but expressive portraits while Gardner focuses on the mouth, recognizing how this orifice can reveal a great deal about a person's lifestyle, health, age or even class. Although the 'bricolage' aspect of this show suggests difference, together these works are so divergent that they compete with each other. Gardner's studied painterly style contrasts sharply with the more spontaneous imprints created by Crichton. Meanwhile, McPherson's endearing portraits that are full of personality, challenge the anonymity of Morgan's figure painting. Overall, it is Gardner's mouths that have the last say about identity. These intimate bodyscapes shout to be studied more closely as they lure the viewer into their surreal and threatening cavernous grottos.

In spite of the cancellation of Kingston on the Edge this year's city urban festival, The National Gallery of Jamaica went ahead with its open house Dialogues in Space, featuring dance, improvisation and fashion performances. The programme began with the work of two dancers Safi Harriot and Zita Nyaradi who blended their creative movements to the live sound of a drum and guitar. The gallery's normally tranquil lobby became a stage for the two artists who dominated the space with their open fluid forms. At times the routine seemed a little clumsy but this might have even been intentional as this awkwardness was absorbed into the push and pull of the choreography. Peter Chin's performance added to this sense of improvisation, he offered a multi-disciplinary performance that referenced 'the dance he might have given' had the urban festival gone ahead all the while stressing that he preferred to play with the uncertainty of the present and the frustration of time. He told us that he wanted to give us everything and tell us everything about what had brought him to that moment even as he interacted with the audience asking them repeatedly 'how much time do I have left?' His fifteen minutes of hesitation, humour, sound poetry, recitation and dance kept the audience guessing as he explored concepts related to embarrassment and transcendence and even departure. In contrast, fibre artist Jehan Jackson's fashion display was minimal. Her five models placed on pedestals held their poses like mannequins shifting only occasionally to display a new attitude and aspect of their garb. Titillated, the audience moved closer, themselves becoming part of the optimistic mood and art on show proving that improvisation trumps poor planning and pessimism, any day.

Last week saw the launch of Kingston On The Edge (KOTE), an arts festival where the capital's artists take over the city. For the third year running, activities have been planned across the city in a programme with exhibitions, musical events, theatre and dance performaces and social community projects, and film, that has kept followers enthralled. Each year the events program has grown and it's clear that KOTE is set to become an annual event.

On Saturday we joined Red Rubber Band artists who were painting a wall near Gully Side, National Heroes Circle. Then we were downtown again on Sunday, this time visiting the Shaare Shalom Synagogue on Duke St. for a string concert by the Pimento Players and a bonus performance from the Polish Max Klezmar band who play a form of jazz with jewish influences. Great stuff!