Unarmed Mariners: Port-Lamento
Unarmed Mariners: Port-Lamento
Alecia McKenzie
Mixed media on canvas, audiovisual installation, poetry – 2024
About the artwork
The creative process
Writing and painting spring from the same well – the need to express some kind of truth, to tell one’s own story, to understand how history shapes the present.
About the artist
A committed proponent of Caribbean culture, Alecia McKenzie is an award-winning writer, editor and artist. Her books include Satellite City and Sweetheart, both recipients of Commonwealth literary prizes, and A Million Aunties – longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award in 2022. The translation of Sweetheart (Trésor) received the “Prix Carbet des lycéens” in 2017. Alecia was born in Jamaica, where she began writing poetry and stories in high school and later worked in media, and she has also lived in the United States, Belgium, England, Singapore, and France (currently based in Paris). Her work as a visual artist has been featured in a range of international exhibitions, in Singapore, Paris, Kingston, London and other cities, while her new artwork combines poetry, painting, music and film.
