Sweetness and Light by Roshini Kempadoo
The essential thing here . . . is to answer
clearly the innocent first question: what,
fundamentally, is colonialization? To agree
on what it is not: neither evangelisation, nor
a philanthropic enterprise, nor a desire to
push back the frontier of ignorance, disease
and tyranny . . . nor an attempt to extend
the rule of law. . . . [T]he decisive actors
here are the adventurer and the pirate, the
wholesale grocer and the ship owner, the gold
digger and the merchant, appetite and force.
---Aimé Cesaire,
Discourse on Colonialism
(originally published in 1955)
Artist's Statement
The work Sweetness and Light explores some thoughts about cyberspace from the position of someone whose ancestors were subjects of the colonial experience. Like all analogies, although there are some similarities, there are also some fundamental differences. I cannot totally condemn the development of media/cyberspace to a neat and simple comparison. Like all my work, Sweetness and Light needs to be seen as a statement or an experience---for now, it is a description that will be changed, is not fixed and should not be seen or experienced as a definitive expression.____________________________ Roshini Kempadoo, 73B Madeley Road, London W5 2LT, United Kingdom, 100737.2121@compuserve.com. |
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