An alternative approach to time and space

TEXT Miguel E. Keerveld, Curator-in-Residence for the project ALAKONDRE: A Space in Time in collaboration with Readytex Art Gallery (RAG).

Wi Alakondre was composed in honor of Soeki Irodikromo. In Soeki’s life and art, alakondre was the absolute driving force, so that this alakondre founder worked, thought, and acted from this driving force. It is not surprising that his oeuvre was awarded with Wi Alakondre. Leo Wong Loi Sing was chosen as the local master of this manifestation, whose style is like that of Soeki. Both are of the same generation, and they have been good friends (RAG, 2022). The other artists whose work was shown in Wi Alakondre are John Lie A Fo, Kenneth Flijders, Kurt Nahar, Paul Chang, René Tosari, Rinaldo Klas, Roddney Tjon Poen Gie, Shaundell Horton, Sunil Puljhun and Sri Irodikromo. In her role as curator, Sri also made a big impact with this event. When I entered, I thought: no wonder because she must be in the company of father Soeki.

Repressed information

My attempt is to track down repressed information in Wi Alakondre. This manifestation portrays Soeki Irodikromo as a deity. When I enter I see a bronze head made by Erwin de Vries and a portrait painted by Sri Irodikromo. Both of Soeki. I also come across portraits that have been made of him by various artists over the years. Peter Holman made a special work of art for Wi Alakondre using photographic material from Soeki’s life. It is clear: Soeki gets almost all the attention here. But especially his own work, a ceramic totem, I find magical. When I analyze it, I notice that blue is the dominant color in it. A color that appeals immensely and is ideal for me, at least in its deepest essence and appearance. Sri is also inspired by this color and Soeki’s totem, which is why she mainly selects works from the other artists in which blue speaks (RAG, 2022). Since blue has appeared before in the project ALAKONDRE: A Space in Time, I know that the focus on blue is not a coincidence. In this specific context, the manifestation of this color is always in the same context, such as in Sri her solo exhibition entitled UDAN LIRIS (gentle rain) in which she indicates that blue is used in Surinamese cultures as a body for communicating with guardian angels (RAG, 2021), and in the solo exhibition Threads of Identity by Shaundell Horton which, among other things, shows her artwork Su Blue. In nature, blue often occurs as a ‘structured color’. Structured colors are macroscopic structures that create reflections through light for our eyes to perceive as color. Pigments, however, work differently. They are organic molecules (Be Smart, 2018). Because of the rarity of blue in nature and the technological peculiarity of biology, to manifest blue as a structure, I associate this color with magic. Why does Sri use the magical substance of this color in Wi Alakondre? I leave her artistic intention to the freedom of the artist, but the appearance of this color touches me deeply.

For example, I also use this color to propagate Afro-futurism beyond an Afro-centric focus. I am particularly interested in Afro-futurism because it works as hybrid spatiotemporally (Gaskins, 2015). It may have cut me off in 2015 when I decided to connect with something I now call my performance persona tumpi flow. Until 2024 it focuses on my own artistic urge. With all the frustrations it brings, it also harbors fascinations that focus on what makes me wonder now: why is Sri working with the magical substance of blue here again? My own fascination with the same color is reflected in our collective experience: memories of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, the Indentured Labor, the subsequent Industrial Revolutions. In my own practice, I see this color as a much-needed response to the International Decade for People of African Descent (2015-2024).

The imagination

I dig deep into the imagination … But sometimes I also think: why do I evoke ‘that misery’? Usually I question spiritual, political, social, and historical circumstances. Those questions have been playing in my heart and haunting my brain for some time now. Perhaps the same “cursed blessing” also overtakes Sri? And with her many others, such as Soeki Irodikromo, Alida Neslo and Wilgo Baarn. All have in common that they are fascinated with alakondre. I find the same urge in Sri’s ambition. It goes beyond history and the human. That is why I consider this manifestation as a ritual in which ancestral experience and knowledge are revealed through contemporary art.

Since the magical substance of color stimulates all senses (Taussig, 2009), I see Wi Alakondre as a process in which blue is a body for healing the violent history of mankind. Thus, this manifestation is not just a mechanism of creolization, but rather an entanglement of Caribbean theory of Knowing and Being that we may well be able to use to confront colonial and climate complexities differently and from new spatiotemporally. For example, it seems strongly that Sri is also scrutinizing the climate crisis via alakondre. But specifically, as hybrid appearance with new ideas in search of solutions for the consequences of the climate crisis and colonialism. In this I find an alternative approach to time and space: alakondre-fasi. The term alakondre is opposed to the term apartheid and means all-encompassing; fasi is model or method. It seems to be at odds with the Eurocentrism of the last few centuries in human history.

Alakondre-fasi

I see alakondre-fasi as the ‘ethical sensibility’ of Emmanuel Levinas (cited in Keij, 2021). He says it is “a direct focus on the nearest to me” and presents it as appeal: everything in daily dealings with others, consciously and unconsciously. Being in contact with ‘another’ is necessary. To understand the appeal, one must question one’s thinking, feelings, and actions (Keerveld & Bijlhout, 2023). Although the individual could notice that something curious arises in him/her in relationships with others, this revelation usually arises in the unconscious. That is why Sigmund Freud (cited in Gay, 2006) speaks of “repression” and sees sleep as a condition that makes it possible for this “repressed material” emerges in consciousness.

Dreams are not just fulfillments of repressed wishes. In popular belief, they predict the future, which is said to be the way we would like it to be. It does not matter whether it is the psyche of the individual or that of a nation. The popular soul works like this: “what it wishes, it believes” (Freud quoted in Gay, 2006). I know what a people believes is what they work towards. I sense this hopeful wish in Wi Alakondre, which took place at Readytex Art Gallery (RAG) between September 8 and October 1, 2022. Can the repressed information in Wi Alakondre lead to the dream mode for our nations imagination?

Wi Alakondre is a method to experience time and space differently. as alternative knowledge. Based on what Freud (quoted in Gay, 2006) claims, “philosophers have hitherto had no reason to concern themselves with a psychology of repression”, Sri may be spreading her wings to fly towards such a psychology. First, it’s a way that resembles a method of self-organization, which is much more than an economic or political unity (Mbembe, 2017). I call it a brasa ethic (embrace ethic) that represents in “human’s superego”. In the perception of Freud (cited in Gay, 2006) a quality that can avoid the gap between uneducated masses and philosophical thinker to “maintain the bond of commonality, which is so important for the preservation of culture”.

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Sources:

• Be Smart, (9 January 2018). Why Is Blue So Rare In Nature? [Video File]. Retrieved from www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g246c6Bv58
• N. Gaskins, Afrofuturism 2.0: Vernacular Cartography, Time & Space, 2016
• P. Gay, Het onderbewuste: De draagbare Freud. Een keuze uit zijn werk, 2006
• M. Keerveld & C. Bijlhout, Level 2 graduation thesis Academy for Coaching & Counseling in Suriname, Zelfreflectie als kwetsbare ruimtelijkheid: coachen en counselen van kunstenaars met ‘alakondre-fasi’, 2023
• J. Keij, Tijd als kwetsbaarheid in de filosofie van Levinas, 2021
• A. Mbembe, Een politiek van vijandschap, 2017
• Readytex Art Gallery, Press Release UDAN LIRIS, 2021
• Readytex Art Gallery, Press Release Wi Alakondre, 2022
• M. Tuassig, What Color is the Sacred, 2006

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Look at the Sranan Art Xposed photo album of the Wi Alakondre exhibition on Flickr here.

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This publication was made possible in part by a grant from the Dr. Silvia W. de Groot Fund.

Read more about the Dr. Silvia W. de Groot Fund here (only in Dutch).

Read more about Dr. Silvia W. de Groot here (only in Dutch).

TEXT & TRANSLATION Miguel E. Keerveld 

Miguel E. Keerveld (Suriname, 1982) works in conjunction with the brand EdKe and the performance persona tumpi flow. Educated in civil technical engineering, ‘he’ operates with focus on visual language and creative writing. As a hybrid-intuitive concept, ‘she’ performs political interventions related to social practice. As researcher ‘it’ is focused on activating performative politics and manifesting rituals, both related to creative counseling and civic engineering of a cyborg feminist project.

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PHOTOS Courtesy Readytex Art Gallery (RAG)

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