Mankind: Your Kind of Man is about the contemporary male influenced by the concepts of identity, othering and belonging, deriving from post-colonial literary thought. The body of work features masculine subjects and throughout uses a combination of patterns inspired by contemporary African art and colours which are juxtaposed against one other to create a sense of the racial classifications that existed in the Colonial West Indies. Through these distinct features of my work, I seek to tell a story about each of the figures and/or objects within my work of power and a lack thereof. I also seek to disengage the idea that as men we have to be powerful as well.
The concept of identity, othering and belonging has stuck with me since my initial study of post-colonial literatures in English. Through these images, I seek to find my own identity. Is it shaped really by mankind or my real perceptions of who I want to be ultimately? Who determines who I am and what I do as a man? Am I the kind of man that mankind wants me to be or am I the ‘other’?
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Recently, I completed a painting titled, "Arriagado", which when translated from Spanish to English means rooted. In a sense, over the past few weeks, I have realized how rooted I am as an artist. I steeped in a systemic culture of race, religion, gender, political strife and personal conflicts that cause great upheavals in my emotional and mental stability.
Yesterday was International Women's Day and women from across the world joined in solidarity to celebrate the theme, Be Bold for Change. With the recent global upheavals coming to the fore as a result of the new US President, Donald Trump, the theme was very fitting as women were calling for a more inclusive, gender equal working world. According to the IWD (2017), "Each one of us - with women, men and non-binary people joining forces - can be a leader within our own spheres of influence by taking bold pragmatic action to accelerate gender parity. Through purposeful collaboration, we can help women advance and unleash the limitless potential offered to economies the world over." The year 2186 is the year estimated when gender gaps will be closed. By taking decisive action to afford women their dreams, we break down the glass ceiling even further, shattering notions that a women shouldn't be equal to a man. By affording, women and girls opportunities to take control of their health, we advance women further. Policies that place limitations on this progress shouldn't even be considered. Enhancing a global culture of bias, inequality and putting personal favours over the greater good results in crisis. But on the flip side, I am looking forward to International Men's Day. Last year, men stood in solidarity to spread awareness of male suicide. According to the IMD (2016): "In every country bar China where it is approximately equal the suidide rate is worse for men than women and averaged out on a country by country basis the rate of suicide for men is up to three times that of women. In Russia it is 6 men for every 1 women. Men’s health is worse than women’s in every part of the world. Recent World Health Organization (WHO) data shows that, globally, male life expectancy at birth in 2015 was 69 years; for females, it was 74 years. Children suffer when they lose a father or a grandfather prematurely. So let’s work together to turn the tide of male ill-health & suicide". Suicide is not a joke. This year, I will be standing in solidarity with IMD as well and you should too on November 19th. Equally important is the health and well being of men in society. And Mankind: Your Kind of Man will continue to progress until then. New works have been added to different sections of this website. Particularly the new, Drawings section and Paintings. Next week, I will be blogging about some of the ideas, concepts and the process behind selected pieces from each expressive form. My art is a story.
Often when I think about the many stories in the Caribbean, my mind automatically goes back to my study of post-colonial literatures in English at the CAPE level. I think about Kittian-British writer Caryl Phillips' Cambridge, and how he establishes a binary of stories - the story of Emily Cartwright's coming to the Caribbean and her prejudiced ignorance - which there is nothing innocent about versus the story of the slaves in the Caribbean and the epynonymous hero, Cambridge who suffers as a result of the inhumanity of slavery. Phillips seamlessly establishes the plantation divide. I think about Jamaican writer, Olive Senior in her poem, Meditation on Yellow \, highlighting the greed of the Europeans and the destruction of indigenous peoples through her witty language and charm. She establishes a cruel relationship between the oppressed and the oppressor. The oppressor continues to hold onto Caribbean people through neo-colonial systems of control. And I think about my own story of living in a schizophrenic, barbaric nation. We ourselves write our own stories but what about those on the outside, silently judging. Jamaica is a single story of crime, rape, Rastafarianism and a people hoping to be equal - someday in some way. Yet, we restrict the freedom of ideas. We say no to those who don't support our political ideals; we say no to those who choose another sexual orientation; and we say no to those who try to teach us better. As Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche stated in her Ted Talk said in her lecture: "The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story. . . . I’ve always felt that it is impossible to engage properly with a place or a person without engaging with all of the stories of that place and that person. The consequence of the single story is this: It robs people of dignity. It makes our recognition of our equal humanity difficult. It emphasizes how we are different rather than how we are similar." Reject the single story. When we do so, that is the key to appreciating our Caribbean culture. My art is a story of identity, othering and belonging. ![]() As an artist living in the Caribbean, I am a part of the constant struggle we as artists face, although this may vary from culture to culture, slightly. Therefore, this first post will speak to my visual arts practice - Why do I consider myself as an artist, and what are the different disciplines I work in along with the struggles I have to bear. Also I'll share the key things that have kept me level-headed these past few years. Why am I an artist? I remember in the 9th grade when I decided that I was going to do CSEC Visual Arts for the next two years. After a year of success at Visual Arts, getting As, I thought I had some skill. Of course, like the typical artist, I grew up drawing and painting. To say the least, I did not have a passion for it back then. There was a certain unconventionality in how I chose my subjects. I chose all the science subjects, thinking I was going to be the next big shot physiotherapist. Watched everything I could find on physiotherapy, because I was committed to helping others, especially the old and infirmed. Wrong! So I chose all of the sciences. I suffered eventually in 5th form, giving up on Physics and Chemistry (still got excellent grades for both). But I loved Visual Arts. It was a time of exploration. I was doing ceramics and sculpture and drawing figures. I got tired of ceramics although it was my first love and stumbled upon the fact that I can paint and do mixed media. For my CSEC Visual Arts portfolio, my work was centered around the theme of metamorphosis. Out of that came my love for nature, specifically birds. And for those 2 years, I became bird man. After getting a 2, for Visual Arts, I thought I was a failure. How could I get a 2? Did I not work hard enough? Where did it all go wrong? I assessed the situation. In September 2014, I started 6th form at the Wolmer's Boys' School. I came with a different mind set. My art had to mean something to me and it had to help others to appreciate something. In a sense, art made me more committed to helping others. And it came to me. What could I focus on for my Creative Project? Femininity. Out of that came the mixed painting, Women. Thorough research, thorough clarity of ideas and I had to have a focus. What materials would I use. How can that material uplift the work? For my second year in sixth form, the series, Mankind: Your Kind of Man, came to me one day some observation and unconscious though. When I started to work in series, everything became clearer and I had a bigger picture in mind. Mankind: Your Kind of Man explores the traditional experiences of man versus the experiences they have now in the contemporary era where black men have become bastardized by a global culture, rejecting their tradition in some aspects but also accepting social ills as social norms from that traditional culture. Through this series I was able to explore the reality of the everyday man in the Caribbean, the "glitter boys", the men who 'bleach' their skin and the ambitions they have which seem like flowers in the wind sometimes. While portraying this, there's also an appreciation of black man culture. There is the contemporary man with ambition and there are still men who can live up to mankind's expectations and not divert from them too much, in essence, becoming their type of man. So, I consider myself an artist because my art means something. That's the manifesto I live by. To keep level-headed, best advice, I can give:
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AUTHORMikhail Williams is a Jamaican mixed media artist and writer based in Kingston, Jamaica. His writing explores the issues of gender and race in the Caribbean. ARCHIVES
May 2017
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