The Venice Biennale is the oldest and most prestigious art exhibition in the world. Every two years, nations send their best representations of art. It has been compared to the Olympic Games, the reality is more nuanced. It is the ultimate dream of every artist. The work is seen by hundreds of thousands of very informed visitors.
The artists from Grenada participating in the Venice Biennale are even more determined that this Caribbean Small Island Developing State stands shoulder to shoulder with the big boys and girls. The preview on 19 April and the official opening of the Grenada Pavilion of the 2024 Venice Biennale on 20 April, was, for me, emotionally fulfilling, generated by effusive public response and active engagement with the artworks from the Grenadian and Italian artists.
Teams Grenada and Italy. Photo: SLCT
Our contemporary works—presented within the 16th-Century Palazzo Albrizzi Capello in Cannaregio, with its frescoed ceilings and walls—are soulful complements. In that historical space, artists direct their responses to the pavilion theme of No Man is an Island, under the general biennale theme Foreigners Everywhere. For the Grenada artists, we were thrilled to have government representatives Randall Dolland, Chair of the Grenada Tourism Authority and Dr Oliver Benoit, Chair of the Grenada National Museum at the preview and opening, engaging with our artists.
The Grenada Pavilion catalogue, produced by Start.
My work for the pavilion is Foreigner Within, speaking to my experience of double mastectomy following breast cancer. Fittingly, Grenada—situated below the Tropic of Cancer, no pun intended—is a producer of spices and herbs studied and used in several countries for their anti-cancer activity. Part of our tea drinking tradition includes many of these spices and herbs, used to treat various ailments or used as a refreshing beverage, however, I used teabags hand-dyed in a mix of Grenada’s ‘anti-cancer activity’ spices and herbs, to trim my metal and fabric installations, titled My own Power and Knowing. Two rows of 10 photos each, display images from a screening mammogram, to immediate post-surgery healing to 2 years post diagnosis and surgery—my New and changed landscape.
Randall Dolland, Chair of Grenada Tourism Authority and artist Jason deCaires Taylor, speak with me during the preview. Photo: Isabella Hossle
Putting myself on show in Venice, uses my craft as an artist to raise awareness of social issues, in this case breast cancer, the value of saving my life and getting on with my life rather than worry how the world sees me, and overcoming/confronting potential legal restrictions and discriminations as a citizen protected by the Grenada Constitution.
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