THE NEW nude 'Redemption Song' sculpture which stands at one of the entrances to Emancipation Park, has generated 'renude' controversy in the minds of many Jamaicans.
The male and female bronzed figures rest on a concrete base with their legs in a pool of water. Under the figures, the Bob Marley/Marcus Garvey-inspired line '...none but ourselves can free our mind' is written in large, clear letters.
However, the true intent of the artistic statement remains vague to the minds of many onlookers who congregated in front of the structure yesterday. Some cracked jokes about 'Negroes Aroused' and most wore sly smiles. Others were not as amused.
"It nuh look good," Stephanie Bygrave, a 37-year-old self-employed woman, said. "Dem shoulda cover them up with a loin cloth or something. What the artist is saying about black people? And why dem coulden free up them mind inna dem clothes?"
'Redemption Song' replaces the previous piece, conceptualised by A.D. Scott, and which generated a fair amount of debate as well. That piece now rests at the Harbour View roundabout.
Another woman, a Jamaican living overseas, voiced her concern about the sexualised images the work provoked.
"It merely reinforces the stereotypes of black people as sexualised beings. What does it say to people who link sex and tourism in the Caribbean?"
"It reminds me of my foreparents, naked in some canefield, and being whipped by Backra master, it works for me," Peter Stewart, a 45-year-old office clerk, said.
Another man agreed with Stewart's take on the artistic statement made by artist Laura Facey Cooper who claimed to be inspired by National Hero Marcus Garvey, and later Bob Marley.
NOT NUDITY
"This is not nudity, it's art, but I wonder why they couldn't have shown more of the woman, the ladies can see everything the man has, but what about the men? They should have shown more of the woman in some way," one man said. One woman looked at him like he was some sort of new and interesting species of bug, and he walked off quickly.
Other persons had a few choice words about the dangling participles of the work.
"I'm offended by it. I leave my home to come to Emancipation Park, and the first thing I see is some naked black people, it's insulting and it just cut mi vibes," 47-year-old Delores Ashman said. "Not even a loin cloth, just a full frontal shot, and this even worse than the first one. Everything is in clear view. The breasts dem bigger, and look on the muscles in the man bottom."
The children, curious as to what all the fuss was about, looked at the statues, giggled for a few seconds, and then became bored.
Asked what she thought about the statue, one girl shrugged and pointed:
"It's... it's big, and ugly."
Claude Mills
