Visual Culture

Visual Culture: Jamaican Dancehall Signs From the Collection of Maxine Walters

August 22, 2012

Words by Jesse Serwer—

For the last 12 plus years, Jamaican film and TV producer Maxine Walters—she’s had her hand in most every major movie shot in JA over the last three decades, from The Mighty Quinn to Clara’s Heart— has been archiving and collecting one of Jamaica’s most unique and overlooked visual bounties: the vibrant, hand-painted signs found in public spaces across the island. Sturdy and technically illegal, these bold homemade advertisements are nailed to poles and trees everywhere from Half Way Tree to mountain villages, usually during the middle of the night, to promote grassroots events ranging from that weekend’s bashment party to the arrival in town of a pantomime play, or all-star reggae concert.

Tags:Dancehall, Dancehall Signs, Gregory Isaacts, Jah T Worldwide Entertainment, Jamaica, Jamaicans, John Holt, Ken Boothe, Kingston, Maxine Walters, Professor Nuts, The Mighty Diamonds, The Mighty Quinn

Visual Culture: Art in the Dancehall

June 27, 2012

2 Comments

Words by Emily Shapiro—

When dancehall music bust in the 1980′s, with it came a new style of art and design. Album covers reflected the music’s raw sensibilities with over-the-top cartoons and imagery, while sound systems spread the word about their parties with bright, unique posters. These works, which were often hand-painted and generally one of a kind, continue to be peppered all around Jamaica. The intimate relationship between dancehall music and art has rarely been highlighted (though we do our part to give it its due) but our homies Shimmy Shimmy and Al Fingers have taken care of that with their exhibit, “Art in the Dancehall,” which opens today, June 27, at the BASS Festival in Birmingham, England.

Tags:Al Fingers, BASS Festival, Birmingham, Cover Art, Dancehall, Dancehall Posters, Ever Red, Greensleeves Records, Jamaian art, Jamaica, Jamaican folk art, Jamal Peete, Josey Wales, Limonious, London, Reggae, Robin Clare, Sassafras, Shimmy Shimmy, Tony McDermott, Toyan, Yellowman

Visual Culture: Caribbean Art Takes Over NYC

June 26, 2012

1 Comment

Words by Jesse Serwer—

New York City is the biggest melting pot for Caribbean culture there is, so it’s affirming to see the city’s cultural institutions finally put together an event that’s reflective of this. Spread out between three venues—El Museo del Barrio (through Jan. 6); Queens Museum of Art (through Jan. 6); and the Studio Museum in Harlem (through Oct. 21)— “Caribbean: Crossroads of the World” is “the big art event of the summer season in New York,” The New York Times wrote, and “likely the most expansive art event of the summer,” according to ArtInfo.

Tags:Black Star Liner, Caribbean: Crossroads of the World, Cuba, Dudley Irons, Ebony G. Patterson, Edouard Duval-Carrié, El Museo del Barrio, Haiti, Jamaica, Jean-Michel Basquiat, New York City, Queens Museum of Art, René Portocarrero, Suriname, The Studio Museum of Harlem, Venezuela

Visual Culture: A Q+A with Atlantic Records Creative Director Greg Burke

May 16, 2012

2 Comments

Words by Eddie STATS Houghton:::Photos by Martei Korley:::Artwork by Greg Burke—

Jamaica-born, Long Island-raised Greg Burke has designed covers for some of the most notable albums of the last two decades, from Missy Elliott’s Supa Dupa Fly to Jay-Z’s The Blueprint 3—and a whole slew of ’90s underground rap classics, too, like Group Home’s Livin’ Proof. Currently, Burke is the VP creative director at Atlantic Records, where he oversees design packages for LPs by everyone from T.I. to Jason Mraz. In this sitdown interview at Atlantic’s Manhattan office, he shares stories from his days designing for Island, Elektra and Tommy Boy Records in the ’90s (including the particularly amusing tales of his hiring by the latter’s Tom Silverman, and a never-released design for Buju Banton), the dying art of CD booklet illustration and collaborating creatively with T.I. and Jay-Z.

Tags:Atlantic Records, Buju Banton, Dancehall, Greg Burke, Hip Hop, Island Records, Jay-Z, Missy Elliott, Reggae, T.I., Tommy Boy Records

Visual Culture: Robin Clare’s Jamaica Project + Dancing Words

January 20, 2012

1 Comment

Words by Jesse Serwer

It was the good people at London’s Shimmy Shimmy who first first brought visual artist Robin Clare and her Jamaica Project to our attention last year, and since then we’ve been kind of obsessed. Hailing from Jamaica (via Belize) but currently based in Sydney, Australia, Clare’s recent work is inspired by dancehall culture and more specifically the advertising of it, specifically the brilliant aesthetics of Jamaican party promotions. For her latest series, dubbed Dancing Words, Clare takes inspiration from popular dances such as Pon Di River, Pon Di Bank, the Butterfly and Shell Dung, with repetitious prints illustrating the steps’ movements.

Tags:Butterfly, Dancehall, Jamaica, Robin Clare, Shell Dung, Slackness

Call For Submissions: First International Reggae Poster Contest

January 4, 2012

0 Comment(s)

Words by Jesse Serwer—

Reggae probably has the richest poster art tradition of any music culture. From the red, gold and green Bob Marley concert posters replicated on college students’ dorm rooms to the ubiquitous homemade dancehall signs which still abound in Jamaica’s public spaces, there is a colorful shadow history echoing that of the music it promotes. To celebrate and encourage the continuation of this folk art, Kingston-born poster designer Michael Thompson conceived of the First International Reggae Poster Contest. The call for submissions is open until March 30, after which the best posters will be collected into a book and, naturally, reproduced as posters. Designers are invited to design posters related to ska, rocksteady, roots reggae, dancehall, dub and sound systems. There are no cash prizes, but first place gets you a 16-gig iPad, Tougher Than Tough: The Story Of Jamaican Music and Bob Marley and the Wailers: Live Forever boxed sets and The Harder They Come DVD/CD packages (And second gets you all of that but the iPad). Artists, get drawing and enter your work here.

Tags:Bob Marley and the Wailers: Live Forever, First International Reggae Poster Contest, Michael Thompson, Reggae Posters, The Harder They Come, Tougher Than Tough: The Story Of Jamaican Music