Bobo // Scammer — Goat Curry Gallery

Randy // Love

While walking along a peaceful stretch of beach in St Elizabeth I met Randy. We talked for a while and he told me that he writes poetry. 'Love inspires me,' he told me. 'I didn't grow up with love, I spent a lot of time by myself as a child.'

Randy told me we wasn’t taught how to love, but it has been something which he has found strength and purpose in.

Randy is soft spoken and very shy. He explained to me that finding people to trust and be able to talk to is hard within his community and that when you find true friendship it’s something you must hang onto.

Rankine // Signs

Rankine took up painting after he broke his leg slipping on a banana peel. Determined not to let his injury hold him back, he traveled to Kingston and took a courses in sign painting. Using biblical references, photos, images from books, warnings, cautions, historical fact and his imagination, Rankine has developed a large collection of designs over the years.

Displaying his work along the roadside in St Elizabeth, Rankine links his signs together with wire, stringing them between a wooden frame to make one large installation, catching the attention of passersby. Rankine believes that his true purpose is to create signs that will educate children and pass on important messages.

Bamboo King // Studio Visit

Bamboo King created his first animal head in the early 2000s, inspired by a bamboo root he dug up while collecting materials for a building project. In 2015 Bamboo King moved to a property along the beach in Annotto Bay where he established a sculpture garden using found objects collected from the beach. Stacked coal castles decorate the perimeter around his home accompanied by drift wood and animal head rods.

Bamboo King’s practice involves working with the natural forms and contours of materials so that they form a union and fit together willingly.

Georgie // Lignum Vitae

Born in the fishing community of Treasure Beach, Georgie captained boats for most of his life. An injury to his back prevents him from going out to sea, and now Georgie now relies on his carvings to survive.

Although Georgie carves a variety of objects, his life as a fisherman continues to inform a lot of his work. Georgie carves Jamaican canoes, which resemble the traditional dug-out canoes his father used to build by hand from cotton trees. This is a practice passed down from Jamaica’s indigenous Tainos.

Georgie works with lignum vitae (wood of life), a high quality wood native to Jamaica. Nicknamed 'iron wood’ it is a labour intensive building material which requires a lot of time and energy to shape. With limited resources and tools, Georgie continues to use a completely hand-based practice of carving and whittling.

Bobo // Working With Water

Lottery scamming is an ugly business which happens in Jamaica. This is an illegal practice which bleeds innocent victims bank accounts while simultaneously causing gang wars and way too many violent deaths. In 2018 lottery scamming brought a state of emergency on different locations across the country.

There is a strong and powerful energy which pulsates through the rivers of Jamaica. A calming, healing and nurturing energy. An energy that can be harnessed. An energy that is believed to bring protection, guidance and good luck. This is an energy which needs to be approached with care. It requires the wisdom and guidances of our elders and ancestors. However this is also an energy which has interestingly been channeled into the fraudulent practice of lottery scamming. Misused, manipulated and abused.

Bobo // River Maid

I recently visited the spot where I first heard about Jamaica’s fresh water mermaid, in 2016. I’d just arrived in Roaring River, Westmorland, and was planning to base myself there for a couple of months. Bobo and his best friend Dexter had taken me to see the different natural springs and it was here that they introduced me to the folklore of the River Maid.

The three of us sat at this river on my first day in Jamaica staring into the water. Bobo and Dexter silently crushed weed into their palms. Then Dexter turned to me, ‘you believe in mermaids?’ He asked. An image of Ariel popped into my head and a silent chuckle began to build up inside me. Without shifting my gaze I nodded enthusiastically, waiting for the punchline of the joke. ‘Good’ he said. I lifted my eyes, trying hard to keep a straight face, and looked him in the eye. His face was dead serious. I stopped and quickly swallowed my smirk. Hoping he’d go on and tell me more…. he did.

Dexter isn’t with us anymore, (which is a story for another time). So now when I return to Roaring River it’s just Bobo and I who sit by the river. On this visit we talked a lot about Dexter. I told him ever memory I had of him. We laughed hard remember how ridiculous he was and then we cried. I told him that one day I’ll make a film about that time, to really honour Dexter, ‘like a proper film.’ Bobo grinned at me. ‘Yesss, you have to!’

I will.

SCAMMING