Yesterday, Tomorrow, Forever started as two installations that developed during my 2016 Caribbean Linked IV residency at Ateliers '89 in Aruba. An extension of the Sights/Sites series, this work features tile patterns I had photographed during walks around various neighbourhoods. Those patterns would later become the framework through which images of women's bodies (sourced from a locally produced magazine), could be observed. I decided to use the allure of "pretty" colours and repetitive patterns to draw the viewer in, before eventually revealing the much more unsettling reality of disembodied limbs piled on top of each other. This technique of juxtaposing the beautiful and the grotesque has been an effective way of underscoring the duality of the Caribbean space.

 

There is a saying in Guyana, “Hand wash hand, mek hand come clean.” This adage suggests that reciprocal effort applied to the same task by two different parties will result in a positive outcome for both. However, what happens if one party chooses to influence the other in favour of a negative outcome that would be beneficial to them only? I use the works in this series to address the complicity of the advertisers (as well as viewers/consumers) with regard to how women’s bodies are presented (particularly in the tourism industry), and how body ideals are manufactured and continue to be perpetuated in contemporary print media. ​

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