Discover the Top 10 Picks of ‘THE OPEN BOAT’ show by our Curatorial Advisory Board, composed of

Reagan Kemp, Berette S Macaulay and Natalie Willis Whylly

The works selected for ‘The Open Boat’ speak to similarities in our struggles, concerns and triumphs as peoples of The Caribbean, and the shared knowledge and experience connecting the creative communities they represent. The Open Boat submissions follow a common thread of honoring our trans-Atlantic traditions, landscapes and stories, while highlighting historical and contemporary injustices and amplifying unique, site-specific voices and perspectives that can often be misread or misunderstood in general global perceptions of Caribbean art. In our selection, we focussed on the syncretism and familiarity entrenched in many of the works, and the ways that each of the artists selected (not just in this list) contribute to the wider, interwoven arc of Caribbean creative expression. There are multiscalar ways these artists assert their respective national narratives - as well as how they play into our diaspora communities like this one in Little Haiti. We are al “out of many, one people”, after all. “Although you are alone in this suffering, you share in the unknown with others whom you have yet to know. This boat is your womb, a matrix, and yet it expels you.” Glissant's metaphor of the boat as a womb paints a poignant picture of the Caribbean process of becoming, regardless of our many origins. Birth, although revered as a sacred and beautiful process, is also painful, violent, and visceral, much like our expulsion onto the many is/lands we call home. Glissant’s words nod to the birth of a new shared collective through struggle, erasure and adaptability, with the tasks of surviving against odds and carrying on traditions to honor our individual and collective journeys. These works become offerings of transformation birthed from ancestral roots placed on the shoulders of each new generation born to a region that was never meant to be ours, but is now irrevocably part of who we are as individuals and as part of a liminal cultural collective.

Berette S Macaulay, Reagan Kemp and Natalie Willis Whylly

SPECIAL MENTION BY THE CURATORS: “ We really struggled with the last two and decided to add a 11th artwork as Pascale Monnin’s work is just sumptuous and rich.”