Andree Bagoo writes about the "NEW MEDIA" show at TNT's 2011 Film Festival

Muhe Frida (right) and La Vaughn Belle (left) at Medulla Gallery, Trinidad & Tobago

Andre Bagoo writes:
"La Vaughn Belle‘s ‘Somebody’s Been Sitting in My Chair’ worked well in the space. The video work showed the artist re-enacting the scenes of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, wandering an 18th century colonial great house, dressed in casual wear. The idea of the house echoed the space, which is itself a kind of house with wandering viewers encountering work and asking: who owns the work? For whom are these pieces intended? These complex questions mirror the complex issues in the piece which throws up ideas of ownership, identity, ‘beauty’, colonialism, race and class struggle. Is the artist/walker an intruder or the real owner reclaiming the space? Does she reclaim the space or is the space reclaiming her? In other words: what power does she really have? Who is she?"
To read the full article click here.

Making Connections

I have been spending a lot of time working on my documentary, "The House That Freedom Built" and looking at these historical images of hucksters and market women. Some of the women who lived in my house were hucksters and were able to purchase their freedom with the money they made as an itinerant seller. Looking at these images made me think about the relationship between these women and their surroundings, their bodies as landscape, their relationship to the buildings. It made me think a little of Carrie Mae Weems "Roaming" series where she questions the edifice of power. I saw some similarities with my video work "Somebody's Been Sitting In My Chair, Somebody's Been Sleeping in My Bed" (2011) and a work that I have never shown "I Have a Dream" (2005). I haven't shown this work because I wasn't sure of the direction to go. I knew I was interested in inserting my body in these real estate magazine "dreamscapes", but after I did the first one, I wasn't sure if I should be washing clothes in the pool or lounging at the poolside. For where I am in my life right now this would be a really interesting series to revisit and complete.