Sugar Cane plantations in the Caribbean were built almost entirely on slave labour. Shortly after the abolition of the African slave trade, sugar cane plantations were sustained by the labour of Indian indentured workers, who were forcibly taken from their homes. Indo-Caribbean artist Andrew Ananda Voogel, a descendent of the Jahajis of Guyana, a community whose ancestors were Indian indentured workers, recalls these histories of violent departure and exile in his installations.
For Kalapani: The Jahajis’ Middle Passage, ‘Kalapani’ (literally ‘Blackwater’) references a traditional Hindu taboo on crossing the seas. The installation consists of a video displayed alongside the passage papers that record the arrival of the artist’s great grandparents, Sita and Bhoja, to Guyana as indentured labourers.
Andrew Ananda Voogel is a Northern California based artist. He was born in Los Angeles, California in 1983. Recent exhibitions include AfterImages at the Kunstsammlung Jena, Middle-Passage at Project88 in Mumbai, Changjiang Chonqing International Photography & Video Biennale, Black Water at Young Projects Gallery in Los Angeles, the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Record of Exile at the Peninsula Museum of Art and Nightlight at SOMArts in San Francisco.
The exhibition opening is preceded by a screening and presentation – see our events pages for details.
Find the text ‘Handle with Care‘ from curator Ioana Gordon-Smith discussing both Kalapani: The Jahajis’ Middle Passage and Jasmine Togo-Brisby’s exhibition Bitter Sweet.