In-Between Spaces 2011

In-Between Spaces 2011

Following the trip in 2010, we collated and edited our material together into short films, back in the U.K. We screened our films in Brixton market in conjunction with 198 Gallery and presented our films along with a discussion open to the public with ‘This is Not a Gateway’ Festival in London.

During our first visit in 2010 we visited the Edna Manley College for Visual Arts. From our previous engagement with the community of downtown Kingston, we found a very positive interest and enthusiasm for getting involved in creative projects.

We want to re-energise the area by creating a space for the local community to get involved with art which will aid the regeneration of downtown Kingston.

We made links with gallery owner/curator Rosie Chung, who was running projects in a gallery called Studio 174. Her work was very entrenched in working with local communities in downtown Kingston. Rosie is trying to bridge the gap between uptown and downtown.

We intend to set up new projects for the community to get involved in, to bridge the gap and try and demystify misconceptions, which exist between up and downtown Kingston. We plan to set up workshops in downtown Kingston and Jones Town, encouraging the local community to work with us and the artists, to deal with local issues and effect positive changes they can make in their community. Having been there ourselves, we could see that Kingston is in the flux of positive change and regeneration, so it is a crucial time for us to initiate projects now.

We will film and document all events and edit together to produce a more comprehensive and informed film about our experiences. We will use this experience to help us understand more about the culture and what the needs of the community are, to initiate our next phase, to move the project from ‘In-Between Spaces’ to ‘Bridging The Gap’.

Funded by Open Vizor

In-Between Spaces 2010

In-Between Spaces 2010

For this project, we took ourselves out of context, into unknown territory and culture, without pre-judgments or expectations.

We stayed off the usual tourist track and instead immersed themselves in the true raw culture of downtown Kingston, exploring areas and cultural traditions which many Jamaicans themselves have never experienced, such as Rae Town, Pocomania, Coronation Market and Nine Nights. Jenny reconnected with her family in a culture where she spent some time as a child, but is alien to her now. Fiona traced Irish culture to see how it has merged with Jamaican, alongside the new Irish community living in Jamaica in connection with Digicel company.

We also connected with Jamaican and Haitian artists who were working in Jamaica.

We investigated questions like; how migration has impacted on peoples lives in Jamaica? Why people chose to return to their homeland and how that has affected their lives? What is the role of visual art in Jamaica? What is Jamaica’s connection with the Western art world?

We collected several hours of footage documenting a cross-section of Jamaican culture, which we dissected to create a series of short documentary style films. Areas covered were Jamaican contemporary art, emerging artists, aspiring Jamaican musicians an the role and influences of music in Jamaican contemporary culture, returnees and newcomers who have decided to settle in Jamaica.

Funded by Open Vizor