The Visual Life of Social Affliction seeks to grapple with the ways in which Caribbean visual practice critically engages long-standing experiences of social suffering. Recognizing the real senses in which the Caribbean not only was born in the structural violence of Native genocide, African slavery, and Indian indenture instituted by colonial powers, but has been sustained since then by the relentless continuation of institutionalized disrespect, disregard, and dishonor, this project seeks to capture the destructive impact of dominating powers on the lives of Caribbean people. Our wager is that the visual arts constitute one of the most vital expressive and hermeneutic optics through which to explore social life in general and the life of social affliction in particular.

Participating artists include Marcel Pinas, Anna Jane McIntyre, Miguel Luciano, Florine Demosthene, Patricia Kaersenhout, Belkis Ramírez, René Peña, Ricardo Edwards, Blue Curry and Kara Springer.