New book profiles 33 Belizean artists
You have probably seen their work on display, but never all together in the same place. News Five’s Janelle Chanona reports on thirty-three artists and what they have in common.
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
This morning members of the local artistic community celebrated the launch of a new book: Made in Belize. The sixty-eight page publication profiles the multi-talented sculptors, painters, photographers and cartoonists working in Belize and was produced by U.S. art history student, Maggie Turner.
Maggie Turner, Author, Made in Belize
“It seemed like a really exciting time for everything to be developing and I wanted to be a part of that and learn more about it.”
Turner spent several summers travelling throughout the country to interview the thirty-three featured artists.
Maggie Turner
“I think it was a variety of stories and that’s what so exciting. It’s not that Belize is producing one kind of art. Each of the thirty-three artists is doing something completely different but all with a really, really intense passion and that’s the thread that links them together.”
“Since this project began four years ago, of course there have been new artists coming up that are not in the book so I’ll have to come back and do a next edition.”
Janelle Chanona
“Some people might be saying it took a foreigner to come and tell our story. As an artist do you fell that, no, that once the story is told that’s the point? “
Gilvano Swasey, Curator, Image Factory
“Yes, I look at it that way. I’ve always been very critical of that same position where it says a good man is never honoured in his country, no? It always takes someone.”
“But how I look at this whole project is not who is doing it but basically what are they doing? And what she has done has been one of the most important thing, documenting. You have to document things and this is a documentation for everyone, it can be used as a tourist book, get rid of Destination Belize, show the artists because the artists don’t just paint pretty pictures, they document our lives. You look in there you’ll see historical images, you look in there you’ll see George Gabb’s Sleeping Giant that shows how he fought against the British by creating a sculpture with Mayan eyes, Garifuna nose, whatever like that. So it’s kind of like a family album, you look in this book and you learn about who we are and why we are here.”
Copies of the book are available at the Image Factory and other bookstores for twenty-five dollars each. Reporting for News Five, I am Janelle Chanona.
