Ronald Williams Medium: Digital Collage Print Dimensions: 40 x 30 inches Year: 2026
Description:
When contemplating the idea of Caribbean Soul, my initial focus went to the landscape and unique tropical vegetation which read as Caribbean with just a look. However in the back of my mind I kept going to something deeper which I felt had a stronger connection to us as a region. That was our shared history of colonialism, forced labour, resistance and subsequent struggle for self-determination. To that end, for the creation of these two pieces, I pulled inspiration from ideas presented in Lamming’s In The Castle of My Skin; in particular, themes about resilience,Black identity and consciousness.
The figures stand tall, strong and proud, even defiant, with their rich black skin while sporting crowns made from sugar cane and being dressed as field workers / members of the ‘first gang’ regiment introduced in chattel slavery. This alludes not only to an acknowledgement of the post-colonial socio-political landscape we find ourselves in but a consciousness of identity which I think we as Caribbean people carry wherever we go. I also can’t be oblivious to the fact that the region for the most part is seen as a paradise, which contradicts its brutal history and the lived experiences of the majority of its peoples. To illustrate this, the tropical flora which I was first drawn to becomes flat and pattern-like; presenting as artificial as the construction of this space as a Paradise.
