Behind the Orange Door

In: Small axe: a journal of criticism, Band 21, Heft 1, S. 89-98

Abstract

What does it mean to embody the Caribbean as performance/art? In this coolaborative essay, two Caribbean women artists respond to this question in a dynamic dialogue of text and images. Each has individually performed at and been exhibited in more than fifty venues across the Caribbean, Africa, and the United States. Artistic comrades for twenty years, they have also collaborated with each other in performance and video. Here, they offer a deep exchange about their creative practice, paying special attention to two works individually premiered on a split bill in Río Piedras, Puerto Rico, in 2004. Incorporating both self- and peer reflection, their remarks provide historical and critical context for their own and each other's work. They also address the Caribbean as influence and inspiration, and as both a real and an imagined site.