[Art & Design] Robin Clare’s ‘Jamaica Project’ explores Jamaican dancehall and party culture

These prints remind me of the Dancehall animation Sarah Doyle created a couple of years ago. Speaking about the project, Australian artist Clare says:

 

Jamaica Project explores the way in which modern Jamaica expresses itself through its dancehall and party culture. The result is a combination of purely text-based work alongside sexually suggestive graphics inspired by imagery that surrounds the scene. The work shows a culture where women are highly sexualised within a very male dominated dancehall and party scene. An interesting commentary on the dichotomy of Jamaican women’s place withina society which often expects women to maintain roles as both breadwinner and sex object.

My chosen method to base my painting style on is directly inspired by traditional Jamaican artisan skills. Specifically focusing on hand painted signage used in advertising.  As you travel around the island you can see hand painted signage on walls, bus shelters and entire sides of buildings with a variety of messages ranging from selected goods you can buy at local supermarkets and hardware stores to advertising for local law firms and go-go clubs. Yet with cheap costs of production modern digitally produced advertisements are fast becoming a dominant form of written and visual communication in Jamaica, enabling a transformation in the way the culture is shaping its messages and portraying itself to the world. With this homage to sign painting which may one day become a thing of the past, I can recognising the endeavour and skill that went into this past production and that which goes into the present.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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