States of Confinement

Since the discovery of the novel coronavirus a little over a year ago, the world has been turned inside out, thrown into a state of epic chaos, a pandemic. The shifts undergone by humankind over this past year are dramatic, palpable and visible to say the least.

Throughout this period, who is documenting this time and through what lens ? How will this moment in human history be remembered ? How does a crisis such as the Covid-19 pandemic and prolonged isolation, affect the human being, the family unit, societies, the world? And what is this new normal and the new way of being?

States of Confinement is a response and a series of responses, ongoing to the above. The exhibition seeks to explore the various states – physical, psychological, geographical, real or perceived as, and imagined – of confinement, experienced during the worldwide pandemic of Covid-19 in 2020.

States of Confinement is also an attempt to document responses to the confinement or stay-at-home order, in its “early” stages from March 2020 to date (historically, pandemics such as the bubonic plague (1894) or Spanish influenza (1918) have lasted decades…). The exhibition features the work of 7 selected contemporary artists who have declared Trinidad & Tobago as their home, a few operating beyond this “home base” from other geographical locations (USA, China).

Confinement, as explored in this body of work by the artists, is simply the trigger or an identifiable instant in time, creating a ripple effect of illness, anxiety, multiple thought processes, behavioural changes and other treaties occuring in the mind…

Among the many narratives present in this group exhibition, themes of loneliness, belonging, introspection, relationships to self vs. the other, the cyclical oppressive pattern of “History” as well as structural violence become the basis of inquiry.

In a very organic way, over the past three months, these works have entered into conversation with each other on interpersonal, geographical relationships (past, present) and those we’ve constructed within and without our physical environment-s.