Asher Mains: “No man is an island”

“No man is an island, Entire of itself, Every man is a piece of the continent, A part of the main… Any man’s death diminishes me, Because I am involved in mankind…” – John Donne

“We travel on the surface, in the expanse, weaving our imaginary structures and not filling up the voids of a science, but rather, as we go along, removing boxes that are too full so that in the end we can imagine infinite volumes.” – Édouard Glissant, Poetics of Relation

In Le Discours Antillais, Martiniquan Édouard Glissant describes Caribbean people as having changed and constantly changing into another people. It is interesting to note that the etymology of the word “discourse” itself implies a running to and fro or a back and forth. We go, we accumulate, we return, and are changed through the experience. Glissant uses relation as the process of change as identity “becomes” as a result of movement and engagement with the other. Movement, ultimately is a form of knowledge.

Anthropologist Tim Ingold talks about the integration of knowledge as “practicing” knowledge as opposed to “having” knowledge. One of the ways knowledge is practiced is by attending to the relations of the nature of things, or simply – telling their stories. For the 2024 Grenada National Pavilion, our artists explore this theme with Pedrosa’s “Foreigners Everywhere” in their sights as well.

Jason deCaires Taylor’s pieces sees the other in his underwater sculptures – proposing human figures in ecosystems where they couldn’t naturally exist. The reflective nature of deCaires’ sculptures allow us the opportunity to other ourselves in the distorted reflections. Suelin Low Chew Tung manifests the experience with the other as the invading force of cancer on her body. Microscopic foreigners can also alter the course of human life and contribute to their discourse. Frederika Adam contemplates natural forms through photographs of plants. The seductive nature of plants and the idea that they are showing us something important; mystical even, is a reminder that we are not the dominant life force on this planet. Alma Fakhre’s work expresses the other through the filter of human experience. Intangible poetic forces that are summarily called “love” or “the universe” deceptively conceal the intricate and complex nature of our experience of reality. The work by Benaiah Matheson explore identity and place through intuitive mark-making between two very specifically disparate places – Carriacou, a sister island to Grenada, and Huddersfield, England. Benaiah’s physical movement between these places as well as the reflection of his own self identity through this discourse.

Quoting the curator for the 60th La Biennale de Arte de Venezia, Adriano Pedrosa,  on the theme for the 2024 edition, “Foreigners Everywhere” – “First of all, that wherever you go and wherever you are you will always encounter foreigners—they/we are everywhere. Secondly, that no matter where you find yourself, you are always, truly, and deep down inside, a foreigner”.

A Glissantian reading of the theme: that you are only who you are because you have encountered someone else. Glissant’s infinite volumes implies the more you engage in relation to others, the greater potential that you will become yourself, whether the other is ecological, epidemiological, botanical, existential, or interpersonal.