"Born Welsh and Creole into largely black Dominican society in 1890, she was out of place everywhere too foreign for Europe, too Caribbean for Britain, too white for Dominica, and much too female to be taken seriously as a writer for most of her lifetime. But her literary influence continues to grow and resonate, especially with American critic and curator Hilton Als. His group show is a heady, passionate, experimental love letter to Jean Rhys to her literature, her in-betweenness, her life of unbound creativity"
"It starts with Dominica, evoked through a blood red Kara Walker watercolour of palms and ships, and a lush, jungly-green painting of fires and figures on horseback by Hurvin Anderson, two contemporary black painters exploring the Caribbean as a place so laden with historical violence it obscures its beauty. Dominica was Rhys's early home, and the inspiration for her most important (and final) novel, Wide Sargasso Sea,"
Jean Rhys was born Welsh and Creole in Dominica in 1890 and experienced persistent displacement: too foreign for Europe, too Caribbean for Britain, too white for Dominica, and marginalized as a female writer. A critical exhibition frames Rhys's life and work through a sequence of paintings, photographs, and objects that emphasize her in-betweenness and postcolonial subjectivity. Early Caribbean landscapes reference Dominica and Wide Sargasso Sea, while European scenes, neon figurative paintings, erotic photography, and intimate domestic interiors evoke her wanderings, relationships, and alienation. The curation juxtaposes directly related images with broader resonant works to immerse viewers in Rhys's humid, disorienting imaginative world.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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