My drawing installation, titled Couples, was inspired from an interaction I had years ago while living near St. Louis. I met a retired couple who spent many winters vacationing on my home island, Grand Cayman. The couple gave me several tourist pamphlets they had collected from beach condos and hotels that were on my home island during the 1960s and 1970s. I found the images and the text in the pamphlets to be problematic because they seem to be strictly targeting heterosexual, white American couples who were seaching out “romantic” Caribbean resorts. I decided to challenge the pamphlets by making an installation that depicts four couples (either people of colour or same sex couples) in airplane seats, shown smoking, smiling or locked in arms. The installation has several components including the vintage tourist pamphlets for Grand Cayman, vinyl graphics depicting flight attendants and airplane seats, vinyl text and four framed charcoal drawings on paper. The drawings on paper visually challenge the fantasies provoked by the original tourist pamphlets by showing fantasies made for people of colour and same sex couples instead of heterosexual white couples. The drawings use various techniques to create transparencies and small graphics placed around the margins of the couples in the center of the paper. The drawings are monotone and full of subtle details which require much time to explore; they counteract the direct, colourful graphic designs of the vintage tourist pamphlets which are also included in the installation.

Dimensions and Details for the Installation:

Couples, 2020

96x168 inches, 243x 426cm.

Charcoal, vinyl and acrylic on paper, wood, plexiglass, vinyl, vintage tourist pamphlets