Attack of the Sandwich Men
Chris Cozier
A Space Main Gallery
January 16 – February 21, 2004
Curated by: Andrea Fatona
Supported by: Canada Council
The exhibition will be accompanied by an evening symposium hosted by The Cameron House on Tuesday January 20th from 5 - 8pm:
The Mix: Conversations on Creolization and Artist-Community Collaboration examines intercultural art and community informed art practices through the lens of creolization. The Caribbean's multi cultured and multi ethnic make-up will provide the framework for the conversation. Participants include Christopher Cozier, Richard Fung and Rinaldo Walcott. Toronto-based writer and scholar, Honor Ford-Smith, will write a critical essay that frames the issues discussed in conversation. The essay will be made available to the public in spring 2004 on the A Space website.
Essay by Aaron Kamugisha
Made possible through special project support from The Canada Council.
"One morning, a few years ago, I found myself wrapping a sandwich for one of my children to go to school. I did the gesture as if on automatic to the point that I was outside of myself watching myself doing it. I was haunted by the image of sliced bread wrapped in greaseproof paper. To me it represented that time in my childhood, just after independence, the promise of modernity and progress." – Chris Cozier
Attack of the Sandwich Men consists of hundreds of white bread sandwiches meticulously wrapped in wax paper with a flag of the Trinidad inserted into each sandwich to keep the wrapping together. Cozier utilizes the white bread sandwich to critically take up the ways in which progress is symbolized socially, politically and culturally. Cozier subtly highlights the economic, social and cultural forces at work within Trinidad’s past and present history as well as the continued tensions and contradictions that exist around asserting a national identity vis-à-vis the cultural, political, and economic forces of globalization. Cozier visually tells a story of identity making that is grounded in the particular cultural and historical framework of the Caribbean.
Biographies
Chris Cozier lives and works in Trinidad. He is one of the leading contemporary multi-media artists working in the Caribbean. He received a certificate in graphic design in Port of Spain; obtained a B.F.A. in painting from the Maryland Institute of Art in Baltimore in 1986; studied in Florence, Italy; and holds an M.F.A. from the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University in New Jersey, U.S.A.
Cozier’s works have been exhibited and presented at the Havana Bienale, the Bag Factory in Johannesburg, TENT in Rotterdam, CCA7 in Port of Spain, the Museum of the Americas in Washington, DC, at the Art Foundry in Barbados, AfricAmericA 2002, “Nouveau Monde /mondes nouveaux” in Montreal, and the Art Centre of the City of Copenhagen; among others.