By IPS Correspondents
KINGSTON, Mar 5 1996 (IPS)

An exhibition of pictures by African- American photographers, currently on show at Kingston’s National Gallery, offers Jamaicans an opportunity to see a different sort of photography, according to organisers.

The touring exhibition entitled ‘Personal Narratives: Women Photographers of Colour’ features the works of seven African- American artists: Lorraine O’Grady, Correen Simpson, Lorna Simpson, Clarissa T. Sligh, Carrie Mae Weems, Pat Ward Williams and Deborah Willis.

The exhibit “bears important messages for Jamaicans and they are ones that we can identify with as our population is largely of African descent. But the more important feature of this exhibition is that it offers an alternative view of photography, different from our traditional landscape photography,” says Irena Leva, acting curator of the gallery.

The works in black and white, she explains, offer arts students and other visitors an exposure to photography that is conceptual and one which forces viewers to reflect on the myriad of psychological messages which each piece of work contains.

O’Grady’s piece ‘Sisters’ is one example. The picture shows Egyptian Queen Nefernefruaten juxtaposed against the artist’s deceased sister, Devonia O’Grady Allen.

“By comparing her sister to the Egyptian Queen, the artist seems to assert the strong linkage that exists between Egyptian and African civilisation,” says Leva.

A series of pictures made by O’Grady in 1991, ‘Gaze, shows bustlike portraits of coloured women. Within the portraits are smaller figures, as if to show that behind the public face of every woman, there is another, subverted, identity.

‘About Face’ (1991) by Correen Simpson offers another perspective of the culture and history of black women. Faced of portrayed women are hidden behind mask like geometric patterns, such as a clock in the middle of a woman’s braided hair.

“This challenges us to search and define ourselves not as how the world defines us, but rather in terms of how we truly see ourselves,” said Tanya Johnson, a visitor to the gallery, reflecting on ‘About Face’.

“The works speak about the black community through the woman’s eyes,” says Leva, “it is an experience that is not limited to the African-American community, it is universal. This is why this exhibition is relevant to the Jamaican community.”

Slighh’s image of ‘Skookie’, a black child surrounded by sketches of historical accounts, depicts the female as a vulnerable survivor in a world of male violence. (MORE)

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