artist’s statement
In recent years, the Caribbean Community has been forced to come face to face with natural disasters that have caused uncertainty, disruption and destruction. These events have included abnormally intense hurricanes, earthquakes and even a volcanic eruption which blanketed parts of St. Vincent and neighboring islands with ash.
Events have been dotted throughout the region and their intensity has been experienced to various degrees. Nonetheless their presence has been undeniable and the close proximity of the Caribbean nations to each other has meant that every phenomenon feels very close home.
Climate change has fueled some of these events and, even though wildly devastating, these climate-related events come with limited surprise as the world comes to grips with the very real consequences of a changing climate. Other natural disasters such as earthquakes and eruptions, are inevitable events within Earth’s storyline. But these events still bring shock, devastation and chaos due to their unpredictability nature and their onset adds an additional layer of anxiety to the angst caused by climate change’s environmental effects.
Altogether the need to be ready for, natural disasters is now undeniable and any such response needs to address the extensive and complicated impacts that these phenomena have on nations, communities and people. The range of stakeholders whose experiences, needs and voices that must be heard is extensive and diverse and any authentic and realistic response must reflect this.
The artist, or creative, as a community member, is one such stakeholder. In addition, art and design are often a reflection and a record of the experiences, needs and voice of nations and their peoples. It is the artist who captures, records and expresses that which is impossible to quantify or qualify by any other means. In that regard, the artist is also a gatherer of information. The artist must ‘consult’; that is listen, watch and learn in order to be an authentic conduit for voices and expression and also to be a contributor to solutions.
As creatives within the CIIF Program, the artists were exposed to a depth of information on climate crises, the inextricable dynamics of gender and some of the capabilities of technology to express and respond to the crisis experience. This information expanded the perspectives from which the artists could explore and respond to the task at hand.
The CIIF Program placed much emphasis upon the incorporation of consultation and involvement of community members who may use and experience the creatives’ projects. This leant a degree of authenticity and clarity of vision and forced the artists to empathize with the broader community. The agenda therefore has been to record and reflect but offer especially practical solutions within the context of environmental crises.
The project “Stateless” has sought to do just that.
transversality
“Transversality” speaks to how issues and ideas interact. The concept of “transversality” therefore acutely describes the multifaceted nature of the project Stateless. The agenda of the project seeks to address, and respond, to the phenomena of human displacement and social disruption due to climate crises. The project reaches towards transversal solutions by incorporating a wide range of perspectives such as cultural relevance, technological feasibility and personal and national identity to name a few. The project brief of Stateless has also required that a strong degree of consultation occur on the part of the artist/ architect with respect to the community members and prospective users of the proposed solutions. Information shared by persons expertly studied in fields relevant to climate crises has also informed the development of the project. The project Stateless therefore seeks to explore and reflect all of these voices and perspectives, some more poignantly than others, in a cohesive and transversal manner.
Stateless employs the discipline and art of architecture as the project’s dominant mode of design. Architectural design requires a fusion of both artistic and scientific thinking and therefore is a process that is also transversal in nature. The architectural design process for the project has also sought to be both forward-thinking and reverent of historically significant architectural designs from within the Caribbean region. The presence of a plantation economy throughout the history of many Caribbean nations leaves clear and visible evidence in the socio-economic makeup of many Caribbean nations as well as by means of the styles of architecture found throughout the nations. Chattel Houses are one such example of historically significant and culturally telling architectural styles. These houses were made to be lightly built and easily re-located and expandable according to the circumstances of those dwelling with-in. The architectural design approach of Stateless, so too speaks to a need to have a ‘space’ or source of ‘shelter’ composed of a “kit-of parts” which could be easily assembled, disassembled and re-useable in response to displacement. Stateless is therefore transversal in its vision; that is to pay homage to the ingenuity of the past whilst responding to the uncertainty that is the future.