Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
...the documentary. An experimental documentary on the fourth floor. I'd say that I have been
interested a lot in ideas about cartography or mapping. And the tension between the ways
in which we map ourselves within the Caribbean, and the ways in which other people map us.
And so there's a distinct sort of tension between this work and the other work.
Thinking of ideas about home and belonging. I tried to create this I guess... rendition
of what the Caribbean is. This attempt of rendering it, as this one Caribbean state.
It's understood and seen as one space.
The other piece relates to that in a way and it's looking at how Caribbean migrants are
moving in the Caribbean. And the ways in which they are trying to locate themselves and the
kinds of tensions that are coming out of that current movement.
So it's tracking inter regional movement of Caribbean nationals within the context of
this attempt. For 14 of these Islands to come together as an economic unit. Everything is
reverberating, and so congested.
The title of the piece is a parody on the... taken or the slogan taken from the... board
of tourisms advertising kind of phrase. It says just beyond your imagination. And I have
sort of play on that, saying call it just beyond my imagination the way in which a lot
of this space is becoming very inaccessible to people in the region. Unaffordable, physically
inaccessible.
And also what happens when there is such an immense foreign presence all the time. Everything
you eat, you read, you wear, and you see on television. A lot of what you listen to is
imported from other spaces. And just questioning on how that impacts on the ways in which we
understand ourselves when we are constantly reflected in the eyes of someone else doing
the rendering.
The other work is completely I guess in opposition to that. The intention is that there are people
within the Caribbean who are using their own voice to speak about the migratory experience.
That's interesting to me to see that these are Caribbean people moving within the region.
They are not like -within the EU there is sort of a tension between Turkish Muslims
moving into Germany, where as in the Caribbean it's very different because we all know the
history of the migrant experience, and there is a similar kind of colonial history. It's
kind of interesting that there is some xenophobia fears being expressed about the current movement
of people within the region.
So I felt in a lot of work I'd done before where there are pieces thinking about concert
migration. Constant back and forth of Caribbean people moving, in this case I wanted to have
Caribbean people speaking themselves about their movement.
Actually that's all that I can say at the moment. I am not speaking very well, and I
can't remember well myself.
If there is any other questions about anything?
Which is your other piece?
The other piece is on the fourth floor. It's the black box. And it's called "On The Map".
OK.
I call it experimental documentary because it's combining sort of talking heads with
ordinary... kinds of interjections and then there are other people aside from the migrants
who are speaking who are trying to offer a different perspective on the integrative movement
within the Caribbean.
So there's a philosopher. There's a playwright and musician and a masked man. We're trying
to speak about ideas of difference instead of speaking about these relationships in binary
terms which can be inherited from a colonial understanding of ourselves.
And to sort of speak about how can we think about this sort of debunking the myth we use
to find Caribbean space and then how can we begin to think about experiencing this integrative
movement that's happening right now which is quite significant in the region's history.
The way which it's being told to us at the state level is that it's just this one integrated
space. It's really functioning for professionals in the business class to be able to move personnel
very easily throughout the region.
The social kinds of issues are not being addressed adequately. So the original sort of integrations
in the Caribbean would have been like... and then market people and people on the lower
ends of the social-economic ladder who are moving freely in the region. When we were
colonies we were able to do that and interestingly enough when we became independent, the walls
went up between the territories and it became much more difficult to move. Now we are simply
trying to do this integrative movement but it's only working for some people.
So I'm questioning how is it that some of the people who were the original integrationists
and people at the lower social-economic value not be able to access this supposedly integrative
space? So it seems to me that all of the spaces of the region are becoming inaccessible.
I guess in a way if you think about ourselves and the way that we don't have the power to
access this space and it's partly in connection, I think, to this kind of space that we're
creating for tourists and the way in which we map ourselves for people that are from
somewhere else vs. thinking about what we need to do within the region for ourselves.
So I think that there's a tension between the work that's trying to address some of
those issues.
On the map does it show where...
Well I've actually just finished it and this is the first way that it's been shown and
I'm just currently talking to some spaces about the possibility of showing it somewhere
else. I'm particularly interested in showing it in the region, even though it's in comparison
to the market or the numbers of people you could get when you ask me, "OK, I'm particularly
interested in showing it in the region to use it as a platform to discuss some of these
issues."
I suppose one of the obvious spaces for it as well as for more academic type of space
is there's now huge task force populations and they're speaking about migration studies
and... Caribbean studies and so I guess interested in the defacing of that space as well.
Do you find yourself in these places talking or being part of the conversation literally?
Yes. Screening the film and speaking about it, I did that as a work in progress. I've
been working on it for the last two years and did that as a work in progress both here
and abroad which is a very worthwhile kind of exercise. Frightening, at the same time
because it was a work in progress with exposing yourself before you think you're ready but,
yeah, so it's just really been finished and shown here, and then I supposed the obvious
thing at film festivals and that kind of thing, is where it will go.
Can you say something about the golf club thing...
Yeah, Barbados is interested in sort of promoting itself as one of the golfing centers of the
world, so we currently have about seven golf courses. I mean, you have to imagine, this
is an island that is 14 by 21 miles. This is not exactly geographically correct. There
are about 20 countries I'm representing here that have 90 golf courses on them at this
point and counting. And, the largest country, Cuba, only has two.
And, you know, what's happening in Barbados is there are these spaces that are being developed,
almost the entire South and West, it's completely inaccessible. You can't see the sea when you
drive by on the coast because there is just concrete hotels and developments. And they're
selling it, these condominiums that are now selling at $16 million U.S. dollars. And they're
selling very quickly, without any trouble at all.
And, so, I tried doing something. I went to the golf course to get the pins, you know,
which is what they call the flag pole. And, it's a very bizarre space because there is
no sign of life. There're these huge mansions, with beautiful gardens, and the only sign
of anything there are people that are working, maids and gardeners. One of the things Chris
mentioned last night is, does this space serve our interests or are we just supposed to work
there, to serve there, in a particular way?
There're very styled kinds of spaces that are being created, and, of course, there's
economic well-being that's connected to it, but, I guess the concern is that it's not
being balanced, and this is a way in which we are seeing ourselves as becoming more developed
and evolved. And so, the sterility of this is quite frightening. I mean, with consciously
a very reductive, sterile, kind of frightening space, like "The Truman Show," you know, "The
Truman Show."
Ha ha.
So, I guess I was using that as something piggyback on because that's something that
we're really trying to push in our developmental sort of model.
Those kinds of spaces are being created here in the U.S. and in Florida, ...
Yes.
...and maybe in California, but I know for sure in Florida that same idea of a gated
community on a golf course...
Right.
...and nobody gets in or out...
Exactly.
...unless they purchase an expensive home.
Right. And I suppose it's a way of people that use it feel that they're close to nature,
but what we have now are spaces, like this Four Seasons being built, and they're just
taking down thousands of trees, and their argument is that they're planting 20,000 to
replant, but they're completely altering the natural landscape to create a space that they
want to inhabit and they want to sell.
These places rented at $7,000 U.S. dollars a day, these are very inaccessible spaces.
And so I think there is clearly attention developing between the local community and
the estate [Inaudible 10: [10:57] 41] community about control of those spaces and my children
inheriting very different space than the one that I grew up in, and it's one that's increasingly
limited access to, and I find this very disconcerting.
...Sorry. Can I ask you about this...
Well I think there was something in the newspaper about a year ago saying that we were giving
fines to new cars on the road monthly. So you've got huge congestion and lots of traffic.
But there's a model that we're aspiring to of, you know, everybody has to have a car.
It doesn't work, but I think the fact that we're questioning that, these close independent
national agendas are not working. I mean, they seem to be working for some people but
they don't seem to be, I guess, working across the board. So I think that, you know, those
are some of the things that I am thinking about.
Which island is Barbados? I know it's not exact.
It's the one furthest from me. Obviously Haiti has been taken out of... because it doesn't
function in that way, they don't have any golf courses. That's what's going on. I think
that the film in combination with this is asking the question "when will we stop running?"
Because we have enormous migration happening. 89 percent of the people in Ghana have tertiary
level of education in math, about 73 or something in Barbados.
Why are we running? And what is the relationship between those that are leaving and the 36
million tourists that are arriving into this region on an annual basis? You know, there
is tension between those two things and I find it interesting. This myth that we've
inherited our beautiful space, it's paradise, it's exotic...
Then the reality of living there, and our own Caribbean nationals moving and not wanting
to be accepted by other Caribbean nationals because of the fear of how that would impact
economic... or not wanting to have indoor guidance coming into a back country because
they don't want to have that dynamic or, you know, all of these kinds of things, and I
feel that Gulla language hasn't been developed in our society to maybe speak about it in
a constructive way.
And so, one of the main reasons we are doing film is to allow people who are moving to
speak for themselves so that we can listen, and hopefully have a little understanding
and tolerance and sensitivity to that issue. And I think that combining it with something
like this is interesting because to me it's all about land and cartography and mapping,
you know how we map ourselves and if we don't map ourselves ourselves, are we even a real
country if we continue to be mapped by other people? Over centuries, how does that impact
our own sense of...
Thank you.