Revivalism on show

Journeying Revival Iconography is the name of an exhibition now on at the African Caribbean Institute of Jamaica/Jamaica Memory Bank, a division of the Institute of Jamaica, and situated at Kingston Mall, 12 Ocean Boulevard. On show are the iconic symbols that are used in Revival rituals and worn by Revival practitioners to send powerful personal and community messages.

“Journeying Revival Iconography allows the reader to travel the spirit world of Revivalist through assemblages carefully curated to evoke dialogue around themes, such as ritual, identity, healing, power, meaning-making, resistance, and bodily performance. The exhibition introduces just a fraction of the symbolic world of Revivalists to rituals and in the same breath provides an opportunity to clarify and challenge pervading colonial narratives concerning the symbolic representation of this heterogeneous expression,” the ACIJ/JMB says.

The show ends on March 31.

Paul H. Williams