In The Flesh and Debut of “Tea and Empathy” Mixed Media Collage
Last fall, I was commissioned by Drs. Tonya Haynes (Head and Lecturer, Institute for Gender and Development Studies: Nita Barrow Unit, UWI) and Nicole Charles (Associate Professor, Women, Gender and Sexual Studies, Department of Historical Studies, University of Toronto Mississauga) to produce a large-scale collage for Sugar Made Us Free? Diabetes and the Afterlife of Slavery in Barbados: Art, Archive & the Gendered Dimensions of Risk, a multifaceted academic and artist project exploring the impact of sugarcane cultivation and (neo)colonialism on the uneven racialized and gendered distribution of type II diabetes in Barbados, and ideologies and stigmas around the same.
The first facet of Sugar Made Us Free launched on February 12 in Barbados with a public lecture delivered by Drs. Haynes and Charles, “In the Flesh: Critical Reflections on Black Women’s Experiences of Food, Embodiment, and Type 2 Diabetes,” at the Walcott Warner Theatre, where my 30in x 40in mixed media collage, “Tea & Empathy”, was unveiled alongside works by fellow Barbadian artists Anna Gibson and Simone Asia. I spoke via Zoom from Charlotte, N.C., about the creation of and symbolism invoked in “Tea & Empathy”, as well as my own experience with Type 2 Diabetes.
Created specifically for In the Flesh, “Tea and Empathy” continues my ongoing investigation into the layered possibilities of collage and abstraction. While distinct from the “Moonlight Blues” series, this work shares its compositional sensibility — foregrounding fragments, form, and quiet intensity. The collage introduces a continued exploration of botanical forms that I’ve developed across recent works. These are not invented shapes but drawn from the recognizable flora of the Caribbean landscape, such as cerasee leaves and Spanish needle, rendered in my signature linework.
In this context, plants are not simply decorative or symbolic—they serve as carriers of cultural reference, care, and inherited knowledge. Their inclusion in “Tea and Empathy” underscores the emotional and material threads the piece holds together. The invitation to respond to the theme of In the Flesh allowed for a deliberate and focused approach to this work. It’s both situated and standalone—offering a moment of stillness that echoes and extends a deeper conversation within my practice about form, body, and the importance of self and familial care.
