What if the man in the New World needs mimicry as design, both as defense and as lure? - Alicia Lisa Brown
Opens August 8th - 5 to 8pm
Runs through August 31st.
Shop the exhibit here
The idea for the title of the show is borrowed from the essay, The Caribbean: Culture or Mimicry? By Derek Walcott. “What if the man in the New World needs mimicry as design, both as defense and as lure? We take as long as other fellow creatures in the natural world to adapt and then blend into our habitats, whether we possess these environments by forced migration or by instinct.”
The body of works explore the nature of ‘lure’ and the role it plays in adaptation.
The concept of the show is to create narratives, where the strategy of mimicry, an act of imagination; serves as a device for camouflage, copying, inventing and fabricating cultural trends in the quest for belonging. Employing the figure juxtaposed with symbolic imagery such as ruff collars, hair, sugar cane, candy, plants, animals, and other elements function as metaphors and markers of class distinction; status, and beauty. Through the process of migration, particularly within the Caribbean regions where creatures were forced into a common environment there is evidence of generic coloring, racial and tribal camouflage integrated with the effects of colonialism. Mimicry is used as design, both as defense mechanism and lure, producing patterns in the way we navigate through various environment. The desire for social acceptance and belonging into the new world is the gateway to copying dominant culture, as a result identity is sublimated in search of missing pieces of self, creating room for transforming into something new. To illustrate how the process of cultural identity evolves, and transcends throughout the history of the Caribbean, aspects of 16th and 17th century Renaissance paintings are copied and incorporated in the works, re-contextualizing its representation by juxtaposing portraits of women with elements within the pieces to develop concepts. Both traditional and contemporary painting languages are incorporated in the art making process to attract, tease, entice, and lead the viewer through a performance.
Biography
Alicia Brown was born 1981, In St. Ann, Jamaica. She Attended the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, Kingston, Jamaica, and received a diploma in Art Education in 2003 and a BFA in Painting in 2009. Brown also attended the New York Academy of Art in New York and obtained an MFA in Painting in 2014. Her work has been shown at the National Gallery of Jamaica in the National Biennial 2012 and Young Talent 2015. In 2016 she held a solo show at Studio 174 in Kingston, Jamaica, entitled Copy and Placed. She was a winner of the Dawn Scott memorial Award in the National Biennial 2017. In 2003 and 2004, she was awarded the bronze medal for her entries in the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) National Visual Arts competition and Exhibition. Her works has been shown internationally in Germany, London, New York and Florida. Alicia Brown uses traditional painting techniques and iconographic references to examine contemporary issues of cultural identity, race, beauty and social status.