Notebook 10, l'enfance de sanbras
2021 - Installation (Installation)
220 x 169 cm
Kelly Sinnapah Mary
Notebook 10 , l ‘enfance de sanbras (The Childhood of Sanbras) series by Kelly Sinnapah Mary is a sequel to an earlier series by the artist titled Cahier d’un non retour au pays natal (2015). This earlier work considers the process of reconstructing an identity of the Indian workers who arrived in the Caribbean during the post-slavery period. The work addresses the conditions of recruitment of these Indian workers, the strategies of the recruiters, how they lured them onto ships to bring them back to the plantations. Inspired by two authors, Aime Cesaire and Khal Torabully, the artist reinterprets masterworks of Caribbean literature. The Childhood of Sanbras series approaches another axis of reflection wherein Sinnapah Mary engages with her experiences and memories as a child, and the characters she identified with, while exploring current stories about the Indian diaspora in the French West Indies. Working with the concept of memory, her notebooks function like diaries in which characters take form and retell a story through drawings and sculptures that refer to a ludic universe of children. The series introduces the stories of Sanbras, a little girl in a school uniform and braids—an element so present in the artist’s practice that serves as a metaphor for the construction of identity through the gesture of braiding. The artist’s narrative mixes elements of Caribbean culture, Maroons, and Hinduism. Sanbras, in some of the works, has extra arms, legs, or a third eye. The little girl meets other friends throughout the story and builds a community. This resilient new village formed by Sanbras is a reference to the Marronage, of which she is part and wishes to build a new ecosystem. In the sculptures that accompany the notebooks, the artist explores Sanbras in a more material and corporeal manner, giving another dimension to the character through an ingenuous naivety.
Kelly Sinnapah Mary is a multidisciplinary artist who’s work is informed by the diasporic journey of her ancestors. She is the descendant of indentured laborers sent from India to Guadeloupe by the French Government in the 19th century to replace the free labor of the transatlantic slave trade. Sinnapah Mary’s practice reflects on her Indo-Caribbean identity by unpacking the details of her ancestors’ middle passage to Guadeloupe. Through the lens of science fiction, she often explores the so-called feminine universe; working with floral themes, soft materials, and fairy tales, using techniques that contrast the poignant and politically charged subject matter she addresses. From this friction, Sinnapah Mary traces her ethnic heritage, while questioning her roots as someone caught in two nested worlds—confronting concepts of ‘negritude’ and ‘coolitude’. ‘Coolie’, an expression coined by Caribbean poet Khal Torabully, is a pejorative name given to Indians who migrated to the Caribbean.
Colors:
Related works sharing similar palette
© » KADIST
Toyin Ojih Odutola
2015As she traces the same shape again and again, Ojih Odutola’s lines become darker and deeper, sometimes pushed to the point where their blackness becomes luminous...
© » KADIST
Sandra Monterroso
2023Presented as part of a recent group of works titled The Paradox of Healing, Rhombus for Healing No...
© » KADIST
Marcelo Cidade
2006This series of photographs reflects Marcelo Cidade’s incessant walks or drifting through the city and his chance encounters with a certain street poetry like the Surrealists or Situationists before him...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
Open Call for AE x Goethe-Institut Critical Writing Micro-Residency 2021/2022 | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Viewpoints March 12, 2021 ArtsEquator and Goethe-Institut Singapore are pleased to announce the launch of the inaugural AE x Goethe-Institut Critical Writing Micro-Residency 2021/2022 ...
© » KADIST
Sabelo Mlangeni
2019The Royal House of Allure is a name of a safe house on mainland Lagos where members of the queer community in need of boarding, due to various circumstances, live together...
© » THE JEALOUS CURATOR
Soooo, when Malcom Gladwell’s podcast network reaches out to you and says, “Hey Danielle, would you like to share part of an interview we did with Marina Abramović with your listeners”, you say, “ummm, OKAY!” I’ve put a little mini episode together, featuring a 20 minute excerpt from their show, “Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso”...
© » KADIST
Newell Harry
2015(Untitled) Nimoa and Me: Kiriwina Notations by Newell Harry brings together a litany of contemporary politics—mobilization around enduring racism, the legacies of Indigenous and independence struggle, and the prospects of global solidarity against neocolonialism and social injustice...
© » ARTNEWS RETROSPECTIVE
A Jacob Lawrence Expert on a Profile of Him from ARTnews’s Archives – ARTnews.com Skip to main content By Alex Greenberger Plus Icon Alex Greenberger Senior Editor, ARTnews View All January 24, 2020 1:35pm George Chinsee Jacob Lawrence (1917–2000) was one of the deftest documentarians of African-American life in the United States, and over the next few years, people across the country will get a chance to see one of his greatest series of paintings, “Struggle: From the History of the American People” (1954–56), united in full for the first time...
© » KADIST
Seulgi Lee
2018The Korean title for U: Repair the cowshed after losing the cow = Too late is —a famous Korean proverb meaning “you are doing something when you are already late to do it”...
© » ARTSJOURNAL
Royal Winnipeg Ballet asks patrons to avoid 3rd-party sites after record level of online ticket fraud | CBC News Royal Winnipeg Ballet asks patrons to avoid 3rd-party sites after record level of online ticket fraud | CBC News Loaded Manitoba Royal Winnipeg Ballet asks patrons to avoid 3rd-party sites after record level of online ticket fraud The Royal Winnipeg Ballet is urging patrons to buy tickets directly from its website or box office after it lost $10,000 to online ticket scammers during its recent production of The Nutcracker...
© » KADIST
Eleanor Antin
1973Comprised of fifty-one photographic postcards, Antin’s 100 Boots is an epic visual narrative in which 100 black rubber boots stand in for a fictional “hero” making a “trip” from California to New York City...
© » KADIST
Koki Tanaka
2010Tanaka’s unique understanding of objects and materials is reflected in the four photographs that document his Process of Blowing Flour ...
© » CONTEMPORARYAND
Lesley Lokko Receives Royal Gold Medal 2024 for Architecture | Contemporary And search for something search C& AMÉRICA LATINA EN FR MEMBERSHIP EN FR Editorial All Editorial Features Installation Views Inside the Library Interviews News Opinions Events All Events Art Fairs Conferences Exhibitions Festivals Performances Screenings Talks / Workshops C& Projects C& Artists’ Editions C& Commissions C& Center of Unfinished Business Show me your shelves! C& Education Mentoring Program Critical Writing Workshops Lectures / Seminars Membership Opportunities Print C& Audio Archive On Tour Places Explore IN CONVERSATION INSTALLATION VIEW WE GOT ISSUES DETOX LABORATORY OF SOLIDARITY CONSCIOUS CODES CURRICULUM OF CONNECTIONS LOVE ACTUALLY OVER THE RADAR BLACK CULTURES MATTER INSIDE THE LIBRARY LOOKING BACK Follow About Contact Newsletter Advertise Imprint Data protection Membership Contemporary And (C&) is funded by: Editorial All Editorial Features Installation Views Inside the Library Interviews News Opinions Events All Events Art Fairs Conferences Exhibitions Festivals Performances Screenings Talks / Workshops C& Projects C& Artists’ Editions C& Commissions C& Center of Unfinished Business Show me your shelves! C& Education Mentoring Program Critical Writing Workshops Lectures / Seminars Membership Opportunities Print C& Audio Archive On Tour Places Explore IN CONVERSATION INSTALLATION VIEW WE GOT ISSUES DETOX LABORATORY OF SOLIDARITY CONSCIOUS CODES CURRICULUM OF CONNECTIONS LOVE ACTUALLY OVER THE RADAR BLACK CULTURES MATTER INSIDE THE LIBRARY LOOKING BACK GO TO C& AMÉRICA LATINA About Contact Newsletter Advertise Imprint Data protection Membership News Lesley Lokko Receives Royal Gold Medal 2024 for Architecture One of the world’s highest honours in architecture goes to architect, educator, author and curator Lesley Lokko...
