12 november 2021, Flor Linckens
Lisandro Suriel: “It's not like our history, our identity started with the arrival of the Europeans.”
Until 17 December, Chrysalid Gallery in Rotterdam is showing the exhibition 'Ghost Island', with dream-like, magically realistic photos by Lisandro Suriel. The artist was recently chosen as one of the Foam Talents of 2021, selected from over 1800 entries from 72 countries.
Suriel was born and raised on the island of Saint Martin in the Dutch Caribbean, the son of a Dutch mother and a Caribbean father. Raised by his mother, he experienced a kind of disconnect between local Caribbean culture and his own household. At the same time, the Dutch language and culture of his mother didn’t feel particularly close either. The photographer ended up creating a culture of his own imagination, inspired by fairytales and fictional stories and relying on archetypes that everyone intuitively understands.
Lisandro Suriel, Ichanti, 2021, Chrysalid Gallery
Suriel: “When I was young, I often withdrew into imaginary and wonderful worlds, which originated in my own environment. These kinds of fantasies are still the common thread in my work. I was born and raised on a small island [Sint Maarten] that lies in the Caribbean Sea on one side, and in the Atlantic Ocean on the other.”
Yet ‘Ghost Island’ doesn’t necessarily refer to a literal island, but rather to a larger area of Black consciousness and diaspora: the so-called ‘Black Atlantic’ — described in detail in the book 'The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness' (1993) by Paul Gilroy, a Black British sociologist and historian. This author argues that the Atlantic world as we know it today has been strongly shaped by the history of slavery. This area extends from the west coast of Africa to the east coast of America, the Antilles and Europe. The forced migration of twelve million Black people led to the development of a Black consciousness in America and Europe, that was mixed with other cultures. Suriel tries to document and visualise the invisible influences of the Caribbean identity, in order to redefine the collective memory.
Lisandro Suriel, Kromanti, The Great Race, 2020, Chrysalid Gallery
Suriel: “All these people have roots and stories from long before Columbus discovered the 'new world', or before the slave trade started. It is not that our history, our identity only started with the arrival of the Europeans. I bring that forgotten past, the stories that people share around the Black Atlantic, back to life through research and through my images.”
Suriel obtained a bachelor in Photography at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and a subsequent Master’s in Artistic Research and Art Studies at the University of Amsterdam. Suriel: “The art academy gave me the tools to find my own artistic language, the university gave me the academic foundation. And then it was up to me to combine the two.” For his dissertation, Suriel analysed early twentieth century stories and illustrations from West-Indian mythology — specifically from the book ‘Myths and Legends from the West-Indies’ (1926), which was recorded by a Dutch researcher in Suriname. He studied these stories and illustrations in relation to cultural aphasia: the cultural inability to recognise things in the world and find the words for them.
The exhibition 'Ghost Island' will be on show at Chrysalid Gallery in Rotterdam until 17 December.
