Two DCFA graduates share their vision in an exhibition at Frye Gallery in Seattle
What’s in a photograph? For Arnaldo James, Department of Creative and Festival Arts (DCFA) alum, prolific Trinbagonian photographer, graphic artist, curator, and educator, it’s the way a photo can be open to interpretation.
“What appeals to me is the duality of photography, moments are captured that can be a document and a construct. Without context, photographs embody nonfiction and fiction, that's really exciting to me. I intentionally create photographs that straddle real-world observation and constructed moments.”
Arnaldo’s mission with his art has been to bring honour to the experience of Black people, and this calling is especially evident in his current collaboration with Christopher Paul Jordan (also a DCFA alum) to present In the Interim: Ritual Ground for a Future Black Archive at the Frye Museum in the Seattle, Washington. This project, Arnaldo says, is an offering made to the African Diaspora. It is, in fact, the duo’s second collaboration, the first have been the Mission Black Satellite exhibit in 2018.
The In the Interim exhibit was made possible by the James W Ray Venture Projects Award through the Raynier Institute and Foundation at the Frye Art Museum and the Artist Trust Consortium. It is the result of the work that both young artists built upon from a friendship forged through their shared art experience, after meeting in 2014. Developing their skills during their time at the UWI DCFA, they were able to create work that challenges the current understanding of Black audiences, and the Black Diaspora. Deeply inspired by their shared passion for Pan-Africanism, Black histories, and Black circumstances, In the Interim is an examination of what makes the Black experience unique.
Both artists, black men from different cultural backgrounds, hold individual perspectives that they brought to the In the Interim exhibit, and to their art overall. Arnaldo’s Trinbagonian awareness allows him to dig deep into the traditional mas culture, as well as the spiritual connections that are often made through water. His pieces bring the West African spirituality that has been coded into the Trinbagonian cultural DNA to the forefront. Traditional mas has always had an otherworldly and spiritual element, and these aspects are very prominent when viewing his photography for the exhibit. Christopher builds upon the idea that the Black experience can be viewed through the panes of a window. His paintings were made on windows that were retrieved from historically Black neighbourhoods in Tacoma (Washington State).
In the Interim challenges the current culture of inclusivity and the legitimacy of needing Black-only spaces: safe spaces where Black audiences can create, identify, and exist.
Thus far, the responses to In the Interim: Ritual Ground for a Future Black Archive exhibition have been positive, and Arnaldo and Christopher intend to continue collaborating in the future. For both, Arnaldo says, the work has just begun:
“Chris and I are on a mission for life.”
