PARTHENOGENESIS: A Maze Of Silence Within A Roar -
An Epic Spatial Work by A k u z u r u
Including Performances , Installations, Sculptures , Drawings and an Experimental Film 2024
-Statement from the Central Bank Museum Trinidad & Tobago
Art has the power to shift our perspectives and help us to see the world differently. We are honoured to open our gallery to artists like A k u z u r u whose work expands the minds and hearts of all who visit.
This exhibition has been 4 years in the making and the Central Bank Museum is pleased to be able to host this important show by one of Trinidad and Tobago’s foremost performance/installation artists. The premise of the exhibition revolves around the concept of parthenogenesis – this is a term that is associated with the remarkable biological phenomemon where an organism, typically female, can reproduce without the need for fertilization by a male. This process occurs in various species across the animal kingdom.
For the artist this phenomenon represents the idea of female centrality and status and the concept of the power of feminine energy in the development and transformation of life in all of its forms. A k u z u r u uses the concept in conjunction with the extraordinary story of Bolo, an enslaved African woman in the 18th Century who was a “whale watcher” stationed in Chaguaramas, West Trinidad to weave together a performance and exhibition that is as complex and epic as it is meditative and ephemeral. To witness these monumental works of art within the corporate space of the Central Bank is to be transported to another world, where the concepts of time and place become irrelevant. The artwork leads viewers through a maze of subtle colour, unusually juxtaposed materials and palpable emotion. One cannot help but be left in awe at the magic that is Parthenogenesis.
As we journey on in this the 20th Anniversary year of the Museum and the 60th Anniversary year of the Central Bank, we hope that this exhibition programme continues to inspire the public, transform our thinking about art and the world around us and support artists like A k u z u r u to continue their important art practices that serve as the societal inquiries and interrogations that we did not know we needed.