Curated by: Aldy Milliken

Into the Mix presented a conversation about how materiality addresses the complexities of cultural stereotypes in an exhibition which featured 10 Caribbean artists.  Their artwork took on new meanings in a context where cultural history is influenced by outside migrating populations, colonial governments, tourists and the popular culture machine. In many societies, craft and hand-worked items help establish a culture of self-worth in the minds of the local population. The creation of these objects is influenced by the economic opportunity presented through tourism, yet souvenirs represent the visitors interests and are taken out of context.

What is cultural authenticity and who decides what is truly a significant representation of a culture? It is up to contemporary artists and artisans to communicate their intentions and shape the framework in which their work is perceived. The Museum explored ideas from a variety of perspectives that described historical, conceptual, and aesthetic nature of the art works as singular vignettes not as sweeping generalizations.

Furthering the conversation of what is culturally authentic, this exhibition reveals how disparate artists from the Caribbean connect with each other in a virtual world that has no boundaries. Through E-Catalogues by Draconian Switch and Richard Rawlins the show develooped written texts with the artists, blog comments, and included pictures from reviews, interventions, happenings, and discussions in Louisville and other regions of the world during the 10 weeks.

That matters today is to translate the cultural values of cultural groups and to connect them to the world network. This “reloading process” of modernism according to the twenty-first-century issues could be called altermodernism, a movement connected to the creolization of cultures and the fight for autonomy, but also the possibility of producing singularities in a more and more standardized world.
-Nicolas Bourriaud, French curator/critic

Artists

Janine Antoni
Christopher Cozier
Blue Curry
Carlos Gamez de Francisco
Marlon Griffith
Sofia Maldonado
Wendy Nanan
Ebony G. Patterson
Sheena Rose
Heino Schmid