As we come out of another pandemic closing and opening period, the Art Gallery of Ontario reopens on February 1st. That means you only have three weeks left to experience the brilliant Fragments of Epic Memory exhibition. This is the first exhibition organized by the AGO’s Department of Arts of Global Africa and the Diaspora. The new department was created in October 2020. Curated by Julie Crooks, Curator of Arts of Global Africa and the Diaspora, Fragments of Epic Memory blends historical and contemporary narratives, presenting more than 200 photographs from the AGO's Montgomery Collection of Caribbean Photographs alongside paintings, sculpture, and video works by more than 30 modern and contemporary Caribbean artists that show how the region’s histories are constantly revisited and reimagined through artistic production over time. The Montgomery Collection of Caribbean Photographs is a collection of more than 3,500 historical images from 34 countries including Jamaica, Barbados, and Trinidad. The collection covers the years 1840-1950 and includes studio portraits, landscapes and tourist views and brings to life the changing economies, environments and communities that emerged post-emancipation.
As a Jamaican born person, seeing this exhibition was important to me. I visited the AGO in September 2021 on the opening weekend. I spent well over two hours being immersed in the stories that were being told by the artwork. I would have stayed longer but before I knew it the announcement was being made that the gallery would be closing soon for the day. I saw the Andy Warhol exhibition on the same day prior to making my way to Fragments on the fifth floor. I noticed a significant difference in audiences and atmosphere between the two exhibitions. Warhol was louder, and people seemed to be moving through the space faster, taking selfies and group pictures in front of the iconic works. Fragments was more introspective with people spending longer moments with the works.
Zak Ové. Moko Jumbie, 2021
British-Trinidadian artist Zak Ové’s Moko Jumbie 10-foot- tall sculpture commands attention in Walker Court. I wasn’t alone in being awestruck by this piece. Adopted as a staple of Trinidad Carnival in the early 1900s, Moko Jumbie masqueraders stand atop 10-foot-tall stilts, adorned in elaborate costumes, marching and dancing throughout the festival. Like many other elements of Carnival culture, Moko Jumbie connects Afro-Caribbean communities to their ancestral legacy as a means of celebrating emancipation from colonial rule. Read more about Moko Jumbie here.
Andrea Chung, A Litany for Survival, 2019
This piece has sugar crystals fused to the surface of the print. The artwork will change throughout the course of the exhibition as the crystal expand and then fall. The artist’s use of sugar underscores the connection between the global sugar market and the use of enslaved labour in the Caribbean.
Photographs from the AGO's Montgomery Collection of Caribbean Photographs
Leasho Johnson, Sweet Sugarcane (Male Figure), 2014
Nadia Huggins, still from Circa no future 2016-2019
Charles Campbell, Maroonscape 1: Cockpit Archipelago, 2019
Suchitra Mattai, Demerara Dreams, 2019
Gomo George, Women’s Carnival Group, 1996
Still from Ebony G. Patterson …three kings weep…,2018
I think that this beautiful, thoughtfully curated exhibition is a good indicator that whatever the Department of Arts of Global Africa and the Diaspora does next will be worth watching out for.
Fragments of Epic Memory closes February 21, 2022.
Story and photos by Glodeane Brown
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