Caution!!
Title
Caution!!
Year
2009-2011
Medium:
Suite of digital prints installed at various site in Bridgetown, the capital city of Barbados
Dimensions:
16"(W) x 24"(H)
Photo Credit:
Mark King
Collector:
Collection of artist
In 2009, I developed a project using an abolitionist poster from 1851. The broadside was originally posted in the streets as a warning to the Coloured People of Boston and was in opposition to the Fugitive Slave law of 1850 that was a threat to all African Americans. The law required citizens to help catch runaways and warned that those who aided a fugitive could be fined or imprisoned. An interracial group formed the Boston Committee of Vigilance and issued the poster to alert free African-Americans to the presence of Policemen who were acting as Slave Catchers and Kidnappers.
In response to the increase in raids on houses, public vehicles and nightclubs in Barbados in the state’s search for undocumented CARICOM nationals, I decided to work with the broadside, and drag it into the contemporary space. In March of 2009, in the dark of night, I pasted broadsides of the 1851 Boston poster at various locations throughout Bridgetown, including the Immigration Department, Queens Park, the Bridgetown Fish Market, walls opposite the Advocate daily newspaper office and the Central Police Station and the sidewalk outside the Accreditation Council, among others. The services of a videographer were procured and the plan was to develop a short video work that would reveal the act of dragging this 1851 document into the contemporary space and pasting it throughout the capital city to comment on the alleged bounty on the heads of undocumented CARICOM nationals in Barbados.
Unfortunately, the videographer became nervous of being associated with this project and he sabotaged the footage. What remains is a suite of digital stills, shot the following morning in the light of day and some days later, recording the action from the night before and showing how the public began to interact with the broadsides.
