Lifting the Veil: Observations

Inside this rural church the Mary, St. Michael and Jesus statues were all painted 'pink' the colour looked similar to the crayola crayon colour called 'flesh'.  The Black Madonna superimposed in the foreground is the same mold as the Madonna in the pink flesh tone.

Miss Cellaneous

Miscellaneous:  " mis" is a prefix meaning essentially - wrong,  it is a negation.  "cell" refers to associated parts of a common theme, "aneous" is a suffix rooted in the Latin - aneus which means having qualities of. One dictionary search turned up this quote when used as an adjective: "A miscellaneous collection of well-known ne'er-do-wells."
In going about business in Kingston I am getting disturbed that in Jamaica's society I am searching for positive pedestal like archetypes that represent the majority of the population and I can't find them.  The majority of  advertisements in all types of media have left out a vast majority of the population.  Decades and generations of perpetuating this is detrimental to the young people growing up, Jamaica's situation differs from say Haiti where there are images of Erzuli Dantor a voudou spirit  known as the Black Madonna of Czestochowa, said to have been brought to Haiti by Polish soldiers, she is also referred to as Our Lady of Lourdes and Our Lady of Mount Caramel.  The difference between us and our sister island is that the Anglicans and the Baptists were here and there was no room for synchretism like in the colonies where the colonists were catholic and there would be a whole pantheon of Catholic Saints for all the African spirit dieties to hide and play church mass behind.  Who is to wake the island up from its beauty sleep to all this white washing, some of the biggest supporters are themselves African believing this is the way it should be.

#VDAY One Billion Rising Jamaica

So late last night my dad accompanied me to lift these three heavy painted  black madonnas into place (see map above).  I had a difficult time explaining what I was doing as I felt very open and vunerable, I  eventually opened up and explained it and he got it, basically it became something I had to do, it was something I felt I had to express in an installation in a public setting.   My hope is that as a society we can recognize the warning signs of a potentially abusive person as well as recognize the subtle signs of someone being victimized.  For us as a society to stop victim blaming and shaming, and to really be our brothers keeper, to really look over and watch out for others children as both boys and girls and women are most times the victims.  I am using a recognizable image that of the Virgin Mary but whereas in the Caribbean patriarchal society, she is often portrayed white, I have made her black, going back to her original roots, the first mother.  The Madonna and Christ image was modeled after the Egyptian goddess Isis holding her son Horus.  Perhaps it is that image that explains the numerous black Madonna's found throughout Europe.  That being said I am depicting the first mother, a symbol of compassion and understanding, someone who can see you, you the perpetrator,  you the victim, you the observer.  I want us as a society to recognize the subtle signs many of us miss unless we have personal experience.  I chose the Manor Park area as it is one area that both classes converge and intersect in passing, with one set taking buses to that area and a taxi up the hill or walking up the hill to the various jobs and the other set who drive down the hill to work or to run their errands in the plaza's below.   It turned out that the organizers of One Billion Rising Jamaica (VDAY)  were occupying the Manor Park area in the morning as part of their first stop as they headed south, ending at the Institute of Jamaica and, they were wearing red, the colour I chose to paint the garment of the Black Madonna.  From the panel discussion today at the Institute of Jamaica there is so much hurt and wrong doing in Jamaica's society, incest, rape of women, girls and boys.  It seems there is much hurt that the perpetrators carry, they did not receive nurturing as children, we failed them as a collective society many of these abusers were themselves abused, though too proud to even go there, it is felt that these emasculated boys who were made powerless and dominated at some point in their lives as children grow up to then exert the same domination that was done to them.   Sometimes the consequences are sinister and dire.  These Black Madonnas, the first mother is a call for us as a society to see and recognize red flags, warning signs and to call out bullshit tales that keep victims silent and to speak up for those unable to do so.  Dedicated to friends who lost their way.

Rest in Peace, gone but not forgotten: Liana Simon 34, Nordia Fearon 19,  Franciena Johnson 19, Raquel A. 32,  Reeva Steenkamp 30, Karen Rainford 34, Latoya Campbell-Thompson 28,

Below is a link to my VDay Jamaica pinterest board. There is a pattern that plays out and which you can become aware of so you know the signs. Destruction always starts attractively packaged as seduction. http://www.pinterest.com/storyandmyth/vday-jamaica/