Begotten of a Dutch mother and a Caribbean Father, Lisandro Suriel is a photographer born and raised in Saint Martin, an island in the Dutch Caribbean. Having solely been raised by my single Dutch mother in a Caribbean
context conjured an early awareness of cultural differences and a double consciousness. Though Suriel felt very at home growing up, local culture still seemed somewhat foreign to him, as it was not endemic to his household. At the same time he did not retain a penchant for his mother’s Dutch language or culture. The culture that Suriel eventually came to embrace as his own was one that was imagined.
Consequently, throughout his work, Lisandro Suriel has always been interested in the telling of fictional stories that have a close relationship to his personal life. He maintains that these constructed fairytale images are an analogy to what is taking place subconsciously. Photographically, Suriel attempts to transform the empirical world into a rendering of a dreamscape to open up the mind for imaginative thinking and pull the subconscious into existence. The use of fairytale imagery as an artistic expression stems from the assumption that fairytales are universal, inherently constituting a world of archetypes that everyone intuitively understands.
Lisandro Suriel earned his Bachelor’s degree in Photography at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and received his Master’s of Art by research in Artistic Research and Art Studies at the University of Amsterdam. As part of his Master’s thesis he analysed early twentieth century illustrations of West-Indian mythology in relation to cultural aphasia. This research forms the foundation of his ongoing artistic project Ghost Island.
By visually deconstructing New World-imagination, Ghost Island explores the ghostly identity of alleged slave descendants who traversed The Middle Passage during the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade. Ghost Island also stands for his own insular background in Saint Martin, and connotes the New World-condition of complex overlapping histories and immateriality. He proposes that the imaginative lens is arguably the best with which to view how folkloric figures act as an agent in history and animate cultural memory. Lisandro Suriel seeks to employ The West Indies’ own unwritten vestiges of colonialism imbedded in landscape, architecture, and people to generate imaginative linkages to a political past and social identity.
context conjured an early awareness of cultural differences and a double consciousness. Though Suriel felt very at home growing up, local culture still seemed somewhat foreign to him, as it was not endemic to his household. At the same time he did not retain a penchant for his mother’s Dutch language or culture. The culture that Suriel eventually came to embrace as his own was one that was imagined.
Consequently, throughout his work, Lisandro Suriel has always been interested in the telling of fictional stories that have a close relationship to his personal life. He maintains that these constructed fairytale images are an analogy to what is taking place subconsciously. Photographically, Suriel attempts to transform the empirical world into a rendering of a dreamscape to open up the mind for imaginative thinking and pull the subconscious into existence. The use of fairytale imagery as an artistic expression stems from the assumption that fairytales are universal, inherently constituting a world of archetypes that everyone intuitively understands.
Lisandro Suriel earned his Bachelor’s degree in Photography at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and received his Master’s of Art by research in Artistic Research and Art Studies at the University of Amsterdam. As part of his Master’s thesis he analysed early twentieth century illustrations of West-Indian mythology in relation to cultural aphasia. This research forms the foundation of his ongoing artistic project Ghost Island.
By visually deconstructing New World-imagination, Ghost Island explores the ghostly identity of alleged slave descendants who traversed The Middle Passage during the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade. Ghost Island also stands for his own insular background in Saint Martin, and connotes the New World-condition of complex overlapping histories and immateriality. He proposes that the imaginative lens is arguably the best with which to view how folkloric figures act as an agent in history and animate cultural memory. Lisandro Suriel seeks to employ The West Indies’ own unwritten vestiges of colonialism imbedded in landscape, architecture, and people to generate imaginative linkages to a political past and social identity.
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Artworks by Lisandro Suriel
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Lisandro Suriel | Ghost Island: Exploring Decolonial Imagination
This lecture by Lisandro Suriel took place at CCA Glasgow in October 2019 and presented as part of The Tilting Axis Fellowship in collaboration with the Race, Rights & Sovereignty Series.
“Who am I? Where do I come from? Where does my story begin? I find myself marooned on an island in a state of amnesia. Here, the only thing I can remember is that I am Black.”
Tilting Axis 2019/20 fellowship recipient, artist Lisandro Suriel welcomes you to Ghost Island, an ongoing project exploring the relationship between imagination and decolonization. Ghost Island came to be when the Ethiopian sea changed its name to the Atlantic Ocean and displaced a plethora of memories. Lisandro Suriel is a photographer, born and raised in Saint Martin, an island in the Dutch Caribbean, whose work responds to magic surrealism, fiction and dreamscapes. Initially studying at the Academy of Art in The Hague, he received his Masters in Artistic Research and Art Studies from the University of Amsterdam, with his graduate thesis analysing early 20th-century illustrations of Caribbean mythology in relation to cultural aphasia.
Offering up a much-needed subaltern perspective on postcoloniality and deconstructing the Black imagination, Suriel challenges orthodox institutions of knowing that perpetuate a hegemonic paradigm. What does it mean to decolonize? And where do we begin?
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Tilting Axis 5 Conference in Guadeloupe, Beyond Trends: Decolonisation and Art Criticism it was announced that Lisandro Suriel will be the new Fellow 2019/2020 for the Collections and Commissioning Fellowship in Scotland. Tilting Axis is an endeavour pivoting on a Caribbean axis for a creative and academic ecology of art and culture. It is a collaboration between -among others- Mother Tongue in Scotland and London, The Fresh Milk Art Platform in Barbados, The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas, and the British Council. The Scottish partners for the fellowship are: British Council Arts, LUX Scotland, The Glasgow School of Art, Hospitalfield, and the University of St Andrews Dept. Of Art History &MT. (photo courtesy of Tilting Axis)
CV
EDUCATION AND TRAINING
Sept 2013–Jul 2015 Research MA in Arts and Culture: Artistic Research (GPA: 8)
University of Amsterdam (UvA), Amsterdam (Netherlands)
Oct 2014- May 2015 Spectral Cities Seminar (Grade: 8) Netherlands Institute for Cultural Analysis (NICA)
Pedram Dibaza PhD Canidate ASCA, Prof. dr. C.P. Lindner
Sept 2009-Jul 2015 Bachelor of Design: Photography
Royal Academy of Art, The Hague (Netherlands)
GRANTS AND ACHIEVMENTS
Dec 2019 –Dec 2020 Mondriaan Fund – Project Grant
Jun 2019 –Jun 2020 United Nations, Decade Fund – Project Investment Grant
May 2019 – Oct 2019 Fellow for The Tilting Axis Collections and Commissioning Fellowship 2019
Mar 2018 –Mar 2019 Stipendium for Emerging Artists - Mondriaan Fund
EXHIBITIONS
Mar 2020 Ghost Island: Memoria – Stella Jones Gallery (New Orleans LA, USA)
A exhibition of Ghost Islands first chapter “Memoria” at Stella Jones Gallery.
Feb - 2020 Prospects & Concepts by Mondriaan Fund at
international art fair Art Rotterdam (Rotterdam, The Netherlands)
Apr - May 2019 Interrupting Tradition- Perceptions, Notions and
Convictions (Port Elizabeth, South Africa)
Apr 2019 Ghost Island: Memoria A solo exhibition on Photography and the imagination of
the African Diaspora at Casa de Castro Alves in Salvador, Brazil.
Jul 2018- Jul 2020 Holland America Line: Art Link Galleries
Selected works Exhibited sold and represented by Art Link
Galleries on luxury Cruise Ships. In cooperation with Holland America Line.
24-28 Jun 2015 Amongst Ghosts and Robots
Artistic research exhibition at Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam.
In cooperation with UvA (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Apr 2014 033Fotostad (Amersfoort, Netherlands)
Photography festival in which my work was shown in Frame.de.galerie.
Jan 2014 Theatre Royal de la Monnaie (Brussels, Belgium)
Installation of commissioned illustrations made for the Opera of
Sinbad, as part of the children’s opera program.
24 Nov 2013 FOAM Lab: Barter
Pop-up Barter Exhibition (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Sep 2014 Unseen Photography Fair: Neighbuor Food Market
New Talent collection at Hotel de Hallen
Sep 2013 Unseen Photography Fair: The Bank Giro Loterij Collection New Talent collection
Aug 2013 New Steps/First Stage (The Hague, Netherlands)
Exhibition of selected new talent/ recent graduates in Haagse Kunst Kring.
Apr 2013 Salone Della Moda (Rotterdam, Netherlands)
Aug 2012 Moving Pink (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Exhibition through the city of Amsterdam intended to bring
awareness to the expatriate LGBT-community, with emphasis on
the Muslim community. Work was hung in Secret Garden
Montelbaanstoren, MOES and Amphora Art Gallery.
Jan-Apr 2012 KABK/CAFA: Struggle (Beijing, China and The Hague, Netherlands)
Exhibition of ten promising photography students of the Royal
Academy of Art in The Hague. Exhibited project: Hortus Angelorum.
Sept 2013–Jul 2015 Research MA in Arts and Culture: Artistic Research (GPA: 8)
University of Amsterdam (UvA), Amsterdam (Netherlands)
Oct 2014- May 2015 Spectral Cities Seminar (Grade: 8) Netherlands Institute for Cultural Analysis (NICA)
Pedram Dibaza PhD Canidate ASCA, Prof. dr. C.P. Lindner
Sept 2009-Jul 2015 Bachelor of Design: Photography
Royal Academy of Art, The Hague (Netherlands)
GRANTS AND ACHIEVMENTS
Dec 2019 –Dec 2020 Mondriaan Fund – Project Grant
Jun 2019 –Jun 2020 United Nations, Decade Fund – Project Investment Grant
May 2019 – Oct 2019 Fellow for The Tilting Axis Collections and Commissioning Fellowship 2019
Mar 2018 –Mar 2019 Stipendium for Emerging Artists - Mondriaan Fund
EXHIBITIONS
Mar 2020 Ghost Island: Memoria – Stella Jones Gallery (New Orleans LA, USA)
A exhibition of Ghost Islands first chapter “Memoria” at Stella Jones Gallery.
Feb - 2020 Prospects & Concepts by Mondriaan Fund at
international art fair Art Rotterdam (Rotterdam, The Netherlands)
Apr - May 2019 Interrupting Tradition- Perceptions, Notions and
Convictions (Port Elizabeth, South Africa)
Apr 2019 Ghost Island: Memoria A solo exhibition on Photography and the imagination of
the African Diaspora at Casa de Castro Alves in Salvador, Brazil.
Jul 2018- Jul 2020 Holland America Line: Art Link Galleries
Selected works Exhibited sold and represented by Art Link
Galleries on luxury Cruise Ships. In cooperation with Holland America Line.
24-28 Jun 2015 Amongst Ghosts and Robots
Artistic research exhibition at Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam.
In cooperation with UvA (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Apr 2014 033Fotostad (Amersfoort, Netherlands)
Photography festival in which my work was shown in Frame.de.galerie.
Jan 2014 Theatre Royal de la Monnaie (Brussels, Belgium)
Installation of commissioned illustrations made for the Opera of
Sinbad, as part of the children’s opera program.
24 Nov 2013 FOAM Lab: Barter
Pop-up Barter Exhibition (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Sep 2014 Unseen Photography Fair: Neighbuor Food Market
New Talent collection at Hotel de Hallen
Sep 2013 Unseen Photography Fair: The Bank Giro Loterij Collection New Talent collection
Aug 2013 New Steps/First Stage (The Hague, Netherlands)
Exhibition of selected new talent/ recent graduates in Haagse Kunst Kring.
Apr 2013 Salone Della Moda (Rotterdam, Netherlands)
Aug 2012 Moving Pink (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Exhibition through the city of Amsterdam intended to bring
awareness to the expatriate LGBT-community, with emphasis on
the Muslim community. Work was hung in Secret Garden
Montelbaanstoren, MOES and Amphora Art Gallery.
Jan-Apr 2012 KABK/CAFA: Struggle (Beijing, China and The Hague, Netherlands)
Exhibition of ten promising photography students of the Royal
Academy of Art in The Hague. Exhibited project: Hortus Angelorum.