Petit Carême: Port of Spain, Trinidad through the lens of LeXander Bryant
In September 2023, I received support from the Engine of Art Democracy and Justice to travel to Port of Spain, Trinidad. While there, I worked with artist @ccozier50 on the Home Portal project and visited the Alice Yard contemporary art network. In this exhibition, Petit Carême, I share my experience of traveling to Trinidad, which was the first place I had traveled outside of the United States.
I reflected on the similarities and differences between Black culture and aesthetics in the lower Caribbean region and the American South. This exhibition at Begonia Labs will include photographs and videos that are organized into subsections reviewing topics such as community gatherings, the marketplace, day-to-day life, and tropical sceneries. Such topics have been documented and presented from the Caribbean region for decades following the influx of the tourist industry; however, I wanted to place an interesting outlook on these topics from the viewpoint of a Black Southern photographer.
The title of the exhibition, Petit Carême, refers to a climate phenomenon that occcurs in Trinidad during the rainy season, around mid-September to mid-October; the climate phenomenon is a moment in the year with unusually brilliant sunshine that following the regular rainfall. I chose to adopt this term for the title of the show because it aligned with the time of year when the trip took place, and it also poetically nods to a mini-break from the normal rhythms of my creative practice.
On view from April 4 – May 23, 2024. Opening reception on Thursday, April 18 from 6:30-8:30 pm, and a discussion with the artist at the Lab on Thursday, May 2nd from 6-9 pm.
Begonia Labs, Engine for Art, Democracy & Justice (EADJ)
