Ghost Island (2018-2019)
Lisandro Suriel’s magical realistic images stem from an investigation into his roots. Growing up in the Caribbean, he never had the chance to learn about his own history, except for the story of Columbus and slavery that he was told at school. And although the diaspora has its roots in the transatlantic slave trade, the true diasporic identity is more complex than an unambiguous story about colonialism. Suriel tries to separate the Black / Caribbean story from the Eurocentric paradigms of violence and oppression. With the title of his series he refers to his own background on Sint Maarten and the intricate West Indian web of overlapping histories. In ‘Ghost Island’ Suriel rediscovers his own past, his identity and that of his homeland.
Lisandro Suriel, child of a Dutch mother and a Caribbean father, is an artistic researcher and photographer. Raised in a Caribbean context by his single mother, Suriel encountered cultural differences and a dual consciousness at an early age. The culture he eventually embraced was born in his imagination. This is reflected in his choice of fairy-tale imagery. Fairy tales are universal and form a world of archetypes that everyone understands intuitively.
courtesy of Chrysalid Gallery, Mondriaan Fund and UN Decade Fund
–> Tilting Axis
