Wikipedia

Deborah Jack

(Redirected fromDrisana Deborah Jack)

Deborah Drisana Jack(born 1970) is a Caribbean visual artist and poet. Raised on the island ofSaint Martin,her art is bothconceptualand interdisciplinary, employinginstallation,photography, and film to explore various themes. She has published two poetry collections. Jack graduated from theState University of New York at Buffaloand teaches art atNew Jersey City University.[1]

Deborah Jack
Born
Deborah Drisana Jack

1970 (age 53–54)
Rotterdam,Netherlands
Alma materState University of New York at Buffalo(MFA, 2006)
Occupation(s)Visual artist and poet
Websitedeborahjack

Early life and education

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Jack was born in 1970 inRotterdam,Netherlands. She grew up inSint Maarten,the Dutch half of the island ofSaint Martinin theCaribbean.[2]

In the 1990s, Jack worked in an art gallery and was among the founding partners of thePhilipsburg-based AXUM.[3]She earned her MFA in 2002 from theState University of New York at Buffalo.[4]

Art career

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Jack's art isconceptual,exploring themes related to theAfrican diaspora,memory and time. Her works are multidisciplinary, usinginstallation,photography, and film. She frequently uses motifs such as the ocean, salt, slavery, theMiddle Passage,andAtlantic hurricanes.[2]

"To watch me film would be a performance. I am a very low-tech, low-fi creator, even with the digital tools. I would have the camera strapped to my hand and would choreograph a way to move through the trees so that you would think that you are going through some kind of experience. There is this dance performance that is happening to get a certain smoothness for me to know that if I am going to slow it down then I need to move at a certain speed." —Deborah Jack forBOMB Magazine,24 February 2021.[5]

Saltplays a crucial role in much of Jack's work. Historically, salt mining in Saint Martin was accomplished through slave labour. Beginning in the early 2000s, Jack's art has incorporated salt as a motif, connecting members of the African diaspora through the ocean to their roots in Africa. For her 2002Foremothersseries, she used rock salt in portraits of her paternal grandmother.[2][1]

Jack had a summer residency at Big Orbit Gallery in 2004 and her installationSHOREdebuted there on 11 September. She layered the gallery floors with five tons of brown and white salt which visitors trod on. The installation employed a 40-foot by 20-foot reflecting pool at the edge of the floor and used projected video, sound, and nylon sails to evoke themes related to memory, thehistory of Saint Martin,slavery, and the Middle Passage.[6]

After a purchaser of one of the paintings from Jack'sA/Salting Seriesinformed her the artwork had been growing, she visited the painting to discover that it had been recently moved and a change in air moisture had caused new crystallization of the salts.[6]

Jack is considered an important poet from the Caribbean island of St. Martin, where hernom de plumeis Drisana. The debut poetry collection,The Rainy Seasonby Drisana Deborah Jack, was published by House of Nehesi Publishers (HNP) in 1997. Her second book of verse,skin(2006), was also published by theSaint Martin (island)indie press.[4]

A 20-year retrospective of Jack's work,Deborah Jack: 20 Years,was held at Pen + Brush in 2021.[7]Jack gave the keynote address at the 2021 St. Martin Book Fair.[8]She also received the Presidents Award at the book fair.[9]

Jack holds an assistant professorship atNew Jersey City University,where she teaches art.[4]

Deborah Jack's filmfecund memories of sky and salt...the amnesia of a history unrehearsed, still lush...(2022) was acquired by thePérez Art Museum Miami,Florida, and exhibited inThe Days That Build Us(2024), a show organized by PAMMTV, a video art streaming platform, at PAMM.[10]

Selected exhibitions

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Public collections (selected)

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Works

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Poetry collections

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  • 1997:The Rainy Season,House of Nehesi Publishers (St. Martin)
  • 2006:skin,House of Nehesi Publishers (St. Martin)

Other books

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(In which Deborah Jack is profiled and her poetry and/or art critiqued)

  • 2000:St. Martin Massive! A Snapshot of Popular Artists,House of Nehesi Publishers (St. Martin)
  • 2003:Salted Tongues: Modern Literature in St.Martin,House of Nehesi Publishers (St. Martin)
  • 2006:Haunting Capital: Memory, Text and the Black Diasporic Body,University Press of New England (USA)
  • 2022:Deborah Jack: 20 Years,Pen + Brush (New York)

References

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  1. ^abMcKee, C. C. (13 February 2022)."Deborah Jack Explores the Shared Histories of the Body and Landscape".Hyperallergic.Archivedfrom the original on 1 May 2023.Retrieved25 April2023.
  2. ^abcMcKee, C. C. (3 April 2019)."'a salting of sorts': Salt, Sea, and Affective Form in the Work of Deborah Jack "(PDF).Art Journal.78(2): 14–27.doi:10.1080/00043249.2019.1626155.S2CID199201274.Archived(PDF)from the original on 8 March 2023.Retrieved8 March2023.
  3. ^De Windt, Daniella (30 June 2022)."In the Hot Seat with Deborah Jack".The Daily Herald.Archivedfrom the original on 8 March 2023.Retrieved8 March2023.
  4. ^abcDees, Sasha (5 July 2014)."Deborah Jack".Africanah.Archivedfrom the original on 8 March 2023.Retrieved8 March2023.
  5. ^Lanay, Jessica (24 February 2021)."Mare Incognitum / Unknown Sea: Deborah Jack…".BOMB Magazine.Archivedfrom the original on 25 April 2023.Retrieved25 April2023.
  6. ^abYoung, Hershini Bhana (2006)."Salt, Slavery, and Other Hauntings: Deborah Jack's SHORE (2004)".Haunting Capital: Memory, Text and the Black Diasporic Body.UPNE. pp. 73–81.ISBN978-1-58465-519-0.Archivedfrom the original on 25 April 2023.Retrieved9 March2023.
  7. ^Uszerowicz, Monica (16 November 2021)."Deborah Jack's Poetic Work Draws Parallels between Hurricanes and Caribbean History".Artsy.Archivedfrom the original on 8 March 2023.Retrieved8 March2023.
  8. ^"Deborah Jack: 'The Caribbean is at the forefront of precarity and climate change'".The Daily Herald.4 June 2021.Archivedfrom the original on 8 March 2023.Retrieved8 March2023.
  9. ^"Deborah Jack, Dorbrene O'Marde, Fabian Badejo, winners of the Presidents Award from St. Martin Book Fair 2021".SKNVibes.7 June 2021.Archivedfrom the original on 8 March 2023.Retrieved8 March2023.
  10. ^ab"The Days That Build Us • Pérez Art Museum Miami".Pérez Art Museum Miami.Retrieved3 September2024.
  11. ^"OPENING: Deborah Jack's, 'somewhere in the tangle of limbs and roots' November 19, 2010".Upcoming. 12 November 2010.Archivedfrom the original on 28 March 2023.Retrieved28 March2023.
  12. ^"PAMM presents The Other Side of Now: Foresight in Contemporary Caribbean Art".Miami Art Scene™.12 July 2019.Archivedfrom the original on 25 April 2023.Retrieved25 April2023.
  13. ^"The Other Side of Now: Foresight in Contemporary Caribbean Art • Pérez Art Museum Miami".Pérez Art Museum Miami.Archivedfrom the original on 25 April 2023.Retrieved25 April2023.
  14. ^"Deborah Jack: 20 Years".Pen and Brush.2021.Archivedfrom the original on 20 May 2023.Retrieved20 May2023.
  15. ^"MCA Chicago - Forecast Form: Art in the Caribbean Diaspora, 1990s–Today".MCA Chicago.Retrieved3 September2024.
  16. ^Forecast Form: Art in the Caribbean Diaspora, 1990s–Today,retrieved3 September2024
  17. ^"Forecast Form: Art in the Caribbean Diaspora, 1990s–Today | MCASD | Exhibition".Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.Retrieved3 September2024.
  18. ^Vazquez, Neil (25 July 2019)."'The Other Side of Now' at PAMM Presents the Best of Contemporary Caribbean Art ".Miami New Times.Archivedfrom the original on 25 April 2023.Retrieved25 April2023.
  19. ^"Collecting 101: acquisition of Deborah Jack's 'the water between us remembers, so we wear this history on our skin, long for a sea-bath and hope the salt will cure what ails us'".Smith College Museum of Art.1 April 2021.Archivedfrom the original on 25 April 2023.Retrieved25 April2023.
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