Fragments of Epic Memory

New ways of understanding Caribbean visual culture, from historical photographs following emancipation to contemporary transnational perspectives, on the occasion of a major exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada

Anchored by an extensive selection from the world-class Montgomery Collection of Caribbean Photographs at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Fragments of Epic Memory situates a range of prints, postcards, daguerreotypes and albums from the period just after emancipation in 1838 within a broader context of visual culture in the Caribbean. This critical volume includes works by Caribbean artists such as Wifredo Lam from Cuba, and Sir Frank Bowling and Aubrey Williams from Guyana–who represent the first generation of migrant modernist artists–alongside 21st-century artists such as Paul Anthony Smith from Jamaica (based in the US), Zak Ove from Britain (of Trinidadian heritage), Nadia Huggins from Trinidad (based in St. Vincent) and Sandra Brewster from Canada (of Guyanese heritage), among others. Their works, along with texts by prominent writers of Caribbean descent, serve as counterpoints to the historical photographs and the violence of the imperial project, constituting a conceptual generational bridge across history, geography, time and space.