ABSTRACT

In this paper, we consider the material and visual implications of coloniality – the darker side of modernity, and structure of management that underpins and supports modernity’s rhetoric of promises – within the circum-Caribbean through a reflection on curating the exhibition Decolonising Refinement: Contemporary Pursuits in the Art of Edouard Duval-Carrié. By juxtaposing the recent work of Haitian-born American painter and sculptor Edouard Duval-Carrié (1954b) and a selection of historical artefacts from the Southeastern US we bring to light the recursive patterns of colonialism and exploitation in which the Gulf region has been culturally, economically, and politically entangled. Our collaborative exhibition deconstructs the notion of refinement both in the aesthetic sense and also as processes by which a resource becomes a product. For Duval-Carrié, the Caribbean is not merely a case study for these broader global dynamics, but rather the crucible from which the modern, industrial age emerges. We thus approach this exhibition as an experiment in decolonising the museum – itself a tool of coloniality – by creating dynamic visual and material relationships in the gallery that deny the viewer the convenient binaries of past/present, art/artefact, and US/Caribbean, and thus forge new possibilities for a kind of decolonial museality that reflects upon its own medial limitations.

摘要

在本文中，我们通过对非殖民化精炼：当代追求的策展反思，在加勒比海周边地区考虑殖民主义的物质和视觉影响——现代性的阴暗面，以及支撑和支持现代性承诺修辞的管理结构爱德华·杜瓦尔-卡里埃的艺术. 通过将出生于海地的美国画家和雕塑家 Edouard Duval-Carrié (1954b) 的近期作品与美国东南部的一系列历史文物并列，我们揭示了海湾地区在文化上反复出现的殖民主义和剥削模式，经济上，政治上纠缠不清。我们的合作展览在审美意义上和资源成为产品的过程中解构了精致的概念。对于 Duval-Carrié 而言，加勒比地区不仅是这些更广泛的全球动态的案例研究，而且还是现代工业时代出现的熔炉。