On view: Trinidadian Chris Cozier at MoMA in New York
On view
Chris Cozier at MoMA
Trinidadian artist, curator and writer Christopher Cozier — profiled in depth by Caribbean Beat back in 2001 — is joining the ranks of other premier Caribbean artists to exhibit at the Modern Museum of Art (MoMA) in New York, home to some of the most distinguished and influential works in the world. It’s a landmark achievement.
Cozier’s Tropical Night (2006–2014) series consists of 268 individual drawings of his personal migration story, which began in 1983 when he left Trinidad & Tobago to study in the United States, continuing with other journeys internationally and regionally.
One of the pieces is a Haitian five gourde coin from Cozier’s first trip to Haiti, about which he says: “the coin was astonishingly smooth and the figures of the revolution had become so worn down that they looked like shadows or silhouettes — visible but unrecognisable.” Cozier pondered what that said about the use of these figures within national narratives and the current political reality.