In Di-Andre Caprice Davis’s GIF Collage, the prismatic arrangement of glitchy textures cycles through a micro-history of net art gestures you’ve likely scrolled past in your Tumblr or Google Plus feed. The hashtag descriptors would vary: body heat thermal imaging, 8-bit pixelated explosions, the high angle zooming in and out of a 3D modelled environment. It’s exuberantly bright and garish, but given a mi deh yah gravitas thanks to the thick gilded frame. Mi deh yah, in the Jamaican tongue, literally means “I’m here.” It’s a gaudy status symbol that reads: this is good enough for your home, or your gallery, or even your museum. (Even if for the moment, it can only be seen on your device’s screen.)
This work will be part of Young Talent 2015, an upcoming exhibition at the National Gallery of Jamaica. Since 1985, the Young Talent exhibition series has celebrated emerging Jamaican artists under the age of 40, as well as encouraged a public dialogue regarding new directions in Jamaican art. In the five editions so far, the alumni list reads of a who’s-who in Jamaican contemporary art: Marlon James, Oneika Russell, and Ebony G. Patterson, who is represented by Chicago’s Monique Melloche Gallery and recently part of Claire Tancons and Krista Thompson’s En Mas exhibition.
