Output details

A Short Sprint. Solo Exhibition and Artists Book

During the summer of 2012, I was commissioned by Birmingham based cultural organisation, ‘Kalaboration: London 2012-Jamaica 50’, to develop a project which responded to both the 50th anniversary of Jamaican independence on the 6th August, and to the presence of the Jamaican Olympic Athletic Team in the city of Birmingham in the run up to the 2012 London Olympic games.

This project set out to devise a visual and conceptual space within which fifty years of Jamaican political history could be narrativised using the metaphor of the one hundred metres sprint. Using the technical ‘phases’ which govern the act of sprinting as a guiding framework, it examines the political oscillations between the left leaning Peoples National Party, and the right-wing pro American Jamaica Labour Party, which have characterised and, to a large extent, distorted post-independence politics on the island.

The realisation of this project included research into the political history of the Jamaica and its photographic and filmic archive, and an examination of re-emerging discourses within the popular media, which appeared to suggest racial, regional or genetic predispositions for particular types of sporting prowess. Also, primary research was carried out into the technical and visual aspects of the act of sprinting with a young athlete at the Alexander Stadium, Birmingham.

From these elements, Piper developed a new multi-monitor video based installation entitled ‘A Short Sprint’ which was staged at the Lake Gallery, Custard Factory, Birmingham in August 2012. As an element of this project, I also developed and published an Artists Commentary available in eBook form exploring the conceptualisation, development and realisation of the work and its relationship to a reading of post-colonial Jamaican political history.

The output is presented via portfolio, which should be viewed in order to gain a proper understanding of the research.