Caribbean Beat — March/April 2020 (#162)

courtesy blue curry
theatrical dis-ordering of signs and ciphers emerges
as the dominant theme in the artist’s work.
And so in Curry’s Untitled (2010), two starfish
are mounted, as if dancing or in amorous embrace,
on top of a painted oil drum. There’s some frothy
silver tinsel between them, and mirrored perspex
appears to have become their dance floor. The
starfish is an easily recognised symbol of the
seaside, of the joyful things we associate with the
marine environment. Placing two of them astride
an oil drum is a harsh juxtaposition that makes us
confront the environmental impact of oil rigs and
fossil fuel usage on this same marine environment.
The mirror gives you the feeling that the starfish
are walking on water — another symbolic gesture,
which deepens the sense of their estrangement
from where they should be, and adds a teleological
twist: are they Christ-like figures about to be
sacrificed? The green paint on the oil drum is yet
another ironic symbol, green being the colour we
associate with nature. Oil itself is natural, even if
its harvesting has brought us to a most unnatural
climate emergency.
All of these elements bring us to a place where
we must confront the dynamics of how smaller
states are affected by the actions of larger, multinational
entities, whether conglomerates or countries,
in their quest to exploit natural resources. That
Detail of Untitled, starfish,
steel drum, mirrored perspex,
silver tinsel (2010)
WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM
61