The Double Dutch project fosters collaboration and exchange among regional artists, challenging ideas of nationalism and the creative insularity of the Caribbean. The second iteration features Bahamian artist John Cox’s 126/73 and Jamaican artist Charles Campbell’s Transporter 8.
Cox’s work explores themes of equilibrium and transformation using bicycle inner tubes filled with air, symbolizing “breath” as a force of life and change. The deflation, wilting, and shifts in these forms echoes the human body’s aging process and the instability of existence. Titled after one of Cox’s daily blood pressure readings, 126/73 also references self-portraiture and the flux of human conditions, with its pared-down installation highlighting notions of surrender and the irregularities of cohabitation.
Campbell’s Transporter 8, part of his ongoing Transporter Project, examined the intersections of aesthetic and political narratives. A black metallic sphere adorned with slave canoe imagery floated amid a pool of black liquid, evoking the weight of colonial histories and utopian aspirations. Referencing Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome, the work juxtaposes ideals of rational utopia with the violent legacies of slavery, creating a meditative, disorienting space.
Together, Cox and Campbell’s works engage in a dialogue about displacement, transformation, and the cyclical nature of existence.
This exhibition is curated by Holly Bynoe, Chief Curator.
Sep 25–Oct 29, 2015
NAGB
T1 Gallery
Charles Campbell
Jamaica
John Cox
The Bahamas