War Dog: Teeth, Thorns, and Iron

War Dog: Teeth, Thorns, and Iron considers the tender work of violence as a necessary task held by many. Through painting and ceramic works, emerging artist Reagan Kemp explores the intertwined relationships between protection, labour, and violence—forces that are often framed as oppositional, yet in lived experience remain deeply entangled. Rather than offering clear moral binaries, Kemp positions the works within these tensions, acknowledging violence as both a tool of survival and a source of harm, shaped by history, necessity, and inheritance.

This body of work draws inspiration from Ajagunda (War Dog), also known as Ayaguna, a youthful and fierce manifestation of the Yoruba orisha Obatala. While Obatala is most often associated with wisdom, clarity, and peace, Ajagunda represents a more confrontational path, one in which conflict and domination are employed as means of restoring balance. Several paintings emerge from close studies of Kemp’s own dogs, German Shepherds, whose movements, instincts, and behaviours echo their historical use as military working breeds. Within the works, they become mirrors for broader systems of power, raising questions about guardianship and obedience, and whether those tasked with protection can also become instruments of harm. The machete appears throughout the exhibition as both a recurring symbol and a functional object—historically associated with conflict, labour, and violence in the Caribbean, it is also an essential tool for cultivation.

The ceramic works draw from natural forms of armour and self-defence found in the environment. Textural elements inspired by scales, ram horns, bamboo stalks, seed pods, dog claws, and the defensive spikes of the silk cotton tree are combined with visual language drawn from historical armour and personal heritage. Central to this body of ceramic work are objects resembling brass knuckles, which embody a tension between strength and fragility. While their forms imply protection and aggression, their ceramic materiality renders them inherently vulnerable to fracture, examining anger not as a hardened or resolved condition, but as one that is exposed, unstable, and easily broken.

War Dog: Teeth, Thorns, and Iron is curated by Richardo Barrett.