Ambassador Marks hails Laura Facey’s new sensation

WASHINGTON — Jamaica's Ambassador to the United States, Her Excellency Audrey P. Marks, has commended Jamaican artist, Laura Facey, for her work, “Their Spirits Gone Before Them”, which has been creating quite a stir at the “About Change” exhibition at the World Bank headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Ambassador Marks, who joined art lovers to view the exhibits on Wednesday (May 18), commended Ms. Facey on the quality of her work and the history it represents.

“The rave reviews and massive attention lavished on Ms. Facey’s work in the exhibition, speaks volumes about the inventive edge she brings to her craft,” Ambassador Marks remarked.

Ms. Facey, a renowned Jamaican artist, has captured the imagination of art lovers on the international stage, with her latest creation, “Their Spirits Gone Before Them,” which has been the talk of the art exhibition at the World Bank. The distinctive work, a demonstrative model assembled to represent a slave ship, had everyone’s eyes riveted to it, in the packed hall of art aficionados, including top diplomats and international officials, who turned out for the opening of the exhibition.

The piece depicts the slave trade with a canoe of miniature figures, each representing approximately 900 slaves who were transported to Jamaica. The slave transport is surrounded by pieces of sugar cane. It is on display alongside works of other artists from the Caribbean and Latin America in an exhibition entitled “About Change,” which runs until the end of July. 

A hemispheric survey of art, “About Change” seeks to showcase visual artists from member countries of the World Bank’s Latin America and Caribbean region, whose work demonstrate, graphically, the idea of change. It was mounted as a collaborative effort of the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Organization of American States (OAS).

Ms. Facey, who lives in St. Ann, was awarded the National Gallery of Jamaica’s Aaron Matalon Award in 2010 for her mixed media installation “Plumb Line” in last year’s National Biennial, is a graduate of the Jamaica School of Art (now Edna Manley College), West Surrey College of Art and the Rhode Island School of Design.

 She won the Institute of Jamaica’s 2006 Silver Musgrave Medal for sculpture, and has been exhibiting in Jamaica and internationally since the 1970s.

She is best known in Jamaica for the controversial emancipation monument, “Redemption Song”, located at the ceremonial entrance to Emancipation Park in New Kingston, as well as her recent work, “Body and Blood of Christ”.

By Derrick A. Scott, jiswashington@jis.gov.jm