Join us on Tuesday November 29, 2022 at 3pm for Sanctifying: Guide Their Way Home by Laura Facey featuring Melda Darling and the St. Ann Senior Citizens Cultural Group.
Sanctifying: Guide Their Way Home Nov 29, 2022
Tag Archives: Laura Facey
NGJ Summer Exhibition: Laura Facey
Laura Facey
Laura Facey – 62 Men and 63 Women
Representing the enslaved persons who labored on the ‘Mount Plenty’ property in the Parish of St Ann, Jamaica as documented in 1820 at the time of the death of their owner, The Hon. John Hiatt, Custos of St Ann, who died at the age of 98.
Laura Facey – Heart of a Man
William Blake’s drawing of a ‘Black Man Hung By The Ribs’ and a seed from the Barringtonia Tree inspired HEART OF A MAN.
“I found the seed on the seashore and thought – as men journeyed across the Atlantic, shackled on ships, stripped of everything and unable to protect their loved ones – their hearts were ripped from their chests.”
‘May the heart of man be restored to its full potency’
Instagram: @laurafacey_
Facebook: @LauraFaceyWorkInProgress
Webstie: http://www.laurafacey.com/
Jamaica Biennial 2017 – Invited Artists: Laura Facey
Laura Facey – Ceiba (2016)
Laura Facey has two works in the Jamaica Biennal 2017: one, Ceiba, is on view at the National Gallery of Jamaica in downtown Kingston; the other, Bumpy Top Desk and Mirror, can be seen at Devon House. The Biennial continues at all locations until May 28.
Laura Facey was born in 1954, in Kingston, Jamaica. She attended the Jamaica School of Art where she attained a Diploma in Sculpture, 1975. She also attended the West Surrey College of Art and Design in England and the Rhode Island School of Design, USA. Facey is best known as a sculptor but also works in other media, such as drawing, painting and printmaking. In recent times, she turned her attention to large meditative pieces that explore the symbolic and cultural potential of natural wood forms and human tools and instruments. She has exhibited extensively locally and internationally. Her work as been featured in major publications such as the Small Axe journal and her many commissions include the famed Redemption Song (2003) monument in Emancipation Park, Kingston. Her awards include the Silver Musgrave Medal (2006) and the Aaron Matalon Award for her entry in the 2010 National Biennial. In 2014, she was conferred with the Order of Distinction (Commander Class) by the Government of Jamaica. Facey lives in St Ann, Jamaica.
Website: laurafacey.com
Laura Facey – Bumpy Top Desk and Mirror (2016)
Jamaica Biennial 2017 – Guide to the Devon House Interventions
We present additional information on the Jamaica Biennial 2017 exhibition at Devon House. This document will also be available as a free handout at Devon House. Opening hours there are Mo-Fri 9:30 to 4:30 and on the last Sundays of the month from 11 to 4. Admission rates apply. All Jamaica Biennial exhibitions continue until May 28.
Introduction
As was first done in 2014, the Jamaica Biennial 2017 is shown at more than one location. In addition to the National Gallery itself, where the main exhibition is held, parts of the exhibition are shown at Devon House, which was the National Gallery’s original home in 1974, and at National Gallery West in Montego Bay.
For Devon House, we selected five interventions by artists whose work resonates with the history and context of Devon House, particularly its dual connection to Jamaica’s plantation heritage and to social change, as the great house was built in 1881 by Jamaica’s first black millionaire. The selected work is by Andrea Chung, Laura Facey, Jasmine Thomas-Girvan, Sharon Norwood, Deborah Anzinger and Leasho Johnson. All are displayed in the Devon House interior. Some of these interventions are immediately and provocatively visible, while the others are more subtle and may at first be mistaken as being part of the original furnishings. This makes the process of discovery and engagement involved in viewing the Jamaica Biennial 2016 exhibition at Devon House all the more exciting.
Leasho Johnson, In-a-the-Middle
Location: The Palm Hall
In-a-the-Middle is a mixed-media sculptural floor piece that parodies a dancehall party, or more specifically, a “daggering session.” It is comprised of locally made metal ‘dutch’ pots, cast from scrap metal, fluorescent red paint with papier mâchè and ceramic castings of speakers and legs. The title is a derivative of a dancehall song, Inna The Middle performed by ZJ Liquid, which in the local context is referred to as a “gyal song” – that is, a song that speaks mainly to female party-goers. The “dutch” pot in Jamaican culture is a multi-purpose item and is commonly found in most Jamaican homes.
In-a-the-Middle explores female objectification and the male gaze within dancehall culture, compared with a perspective of the woman as nourishment giver, bread winner and home maker, symbolized in part by the use of the “dutch pot.” He states, “I was trying to describe a kind of negative space that is misogynistic [and] that surrounds a female described space… women becoming the weak default of a culture that puts its men on the podium of social ideals”.
(Photo: Randy Richards)
Jasmine Thomas-Girvan, The Table (Parallel Realities Dwelling in the Heartland of My People)
Location: The Dining Room
Awarded the Aaron Matalon Award
“The Table (Parallel Realities Dwelling in the Heartland of My People) presents an account of the social, historical and cultural realities of slavery, using various materials and objects. It is set up with a sharp juxtaposition between the indigenous world of Nature, Veve and Taino, against that of Empire with all its assumptions of beauty and civilized behaviour. The Tea Table is laid with fineries like crystal, silverware and China. It lays bare notions of civility in harmony with plunder, murder, rape and genocide, as in the case of the Parsley Massacre in the Dominican Republic in 1937 with its dismembered figures and pools of blood. Historically, the establishment of this Euro-centric status quo has been challenged. This is symbolized in the use of the ‘abeng’, a symbol of subversion by the Maroons as a counter narrative force which disrupts and displaces the genteel setting, celebrating the human capacity for resilience and survival.”
Jamaica Biennial 2017 – Bulletin 5: The Biennial @ Devon House
Deborah Anzinger – A Piercing Void Where We Meet (2017, digital study)
The 2014 edition of the National Gallery of Jamaica’s Jamaica Biennial was shown at multiple venues—a first for this exhibition in Jamaica—and this included Devon House, the original home of the National Gallery and one of Kingston’s main heritage sites. Devon House was included as part of the National Gallery’s fortieth anniversary celebrations, as a home-coming of sorts, but also in response to the Devon House Management’s invitation to organize regular joint exhibitions.
Laura Facey – Bumpy Top Desk and Mirror (2016)
The Jamaica Biennial 2014 at Devon House featured work by Laura Facey, Ebony G. Patterson (who won the Biennial’s Aaron Matalon Award that year), Greg Bailey, Cosmo Whyte, James Cooper, and Oneika Russell, and was one of the most popular and critically acclaimed parts of the exhibition. The approach taken was for the works selected to be installed the Devon House mansion interior, alongside or in replacement the regular furniture and art works, and, in the case of Laura Facey, also in the formal gardens in front of the house. The result was a rich dialogue between the history and context of the house—which was built and owned by Jamaica’s first black millionaire, George Stiebel, in 1881—and the issues raised in the art works, such as the historical and contemporary dynamics of race and class, the politics of visibility and invisibility in the face of social violence, and our relationship to the natural environment.
Sharon Norwood – Root of the Matter XI (2016)
Jamaica Biennial 2014 – Behind the Scenes: The Installation of Laura Facey’s Walking Tree and Needle for the Planet
Once an exhibition is up and running, everything may seem effortless and it is easy to forget what went into the installation. In this post, the first of several that give you a glimpse behind the scenes of the Jamaica Biennial 2014, we let you in on what was probably the most technically challenging part of the process: the installation of Laura Facey’s large wood sculptures, Walking Tree and Needle for the Planet.
Because of the unusual size and weight of the works — 14 meters tall for Walking Tree and nearly 10 meters long for Needle, with both weighing several tonnes — the decision was made to exhibit the works outdoors, in the formal gardens at Devon House. The problem was however to get these works from Laura’s studio in rural St Ann to Devon House and then to mount them there without damaging the gardens. Special precautions also had to be taken to ensure that the works were stably mounted, for the safety of visitors and the works themselves. With other works, the installation was a piece of precision engineering, kindly contributed and very ably executed by Tankweld Limited.
The process started with several site visits, to determine where and how the works were to be mounted. The largest and heaviest of the two sculptures, Walking Tree, posed special challenges because it is top heavy and susceptible to wind. The Tankweld team therefore decided that it needed to be anchored with steel plates and 3 feet long steel pegs which would be concealed below the lawn.
December 2 was the big day on which the two sculptures would be transported from Laura’s studio at Mount Pleasant in rural St Ann to Devon House and mounted there in the formal gardens. The day started with loading the two sculptures, which were at Laura Facey’s studio at Mount Pleasant in rural St Ann, onto a large flatbed truck, using a second boom truck. This was followed by what must have been a hair-raising drive to Kingston via the notoriously steep new North-South High Way and the equally challenging Bog Walk Gorge and Flat Bridge. The convoy arrived on schedule at Devon House in the early afternoon and the installation of Needle was completed without too much difficulty, although special care had to be taken not to damage the Royal Palms that fringe the formal gardens. For Walking Tree a larger boom truck was needed and this was done the next day. It was an even more delicate operation, as can be seen in the accompanying photographs.
Once the installation was completed, we all agreed that it had been well worth the effort and the two sculptures make a visually stunning intervention in the Devon House gardens, right in front of the manor’s facade. The installation has been very popular with visitors and has served as the backdrop for countless photographs. The works can be seen there until March 15, after which we will have to embark on the equally challenging task of removing them!
We wish to use this opportunity to extend our sincere gratitude to Tankweld Limited for making this project possible.
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