PHOTO-Based projects > Unsettling the postcolonial condition of my being

Laughing Cavalier
Laughing Cavalier
Traditional C-Print
13" x 13"
2017

Taken at The Old Stone House in Brooklyn, these self-portraits question my relationship as a child of Caribbean immigrants to NYC's colonial history. A 1699 replica of Dutch colonial homes in the north east, the OSH charges the site-specificity of history acting as setting to how my body acts like a trajectory point embodying one the consequences of history: the height of Dutch colonialist pursuits after 1492 colonization of the Caribbean by Europeans, profits from investments in violent slave trade, and the location itself- New Amsterdam- now New York where I was born. Titles in this series are taken from Dutch golden age (1588-1672) masters’ paintings Rembrandt, Frans Hals, and Vermeer.