The Dark Laboratory Presents
I’m New Here:
Black and Indigenous Ecologies
Circa No Future
By Nadia Huggins
Nadia Huggins was born in Trinidad and Tobago and grew up in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, where she is currently based. A self taught artist, she works in photography and, since 2010, has built a body of images that are characterized by her observation of an interest in the everyday. Her work merges documentary and conceptual practices, which explore belonging, identity, and memory through a contemporary approach focused on re-presenting Caribbean landscapes and the sea. Huggins’ photographs have been exhibited in group shows in Canada, USA, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Barbados, Ethiopia, Guadeloupe, France, and the Dominican Republic. In 2019, her solo show Human stories: Circa no future took place at Now Gallery, London UK. Her work forms part of the collection of The Wedge Collection (Toronto, Canada), The National Gallery of Jamaica (Kingston), and The Art Museum of the Americas (Washington DC, USA). Huggins was selected for the New York Times Portfolio Review (2018), and her work has been included in several publications, including A to Z of Caribbean Art. She is the co-founder of ARC Magazine and One Drop in the Ocean – an initiative that aims to raise awareness about marine debris. She is featured in the volume Black Futures edited by Kimberley Drew and Jenna Wortham.
Indian Bay, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines. 2014-ongoing.
Exploring the vulnerable masculine under water
In Nadia Huggin’s words:
“Believing there to be a link between an under-explored aspect of Caribbean adolescent masculinity and the freedom of bodies in the ocean, I have decided to creatively document boys' interaction with the sea. These pieces capture manhood, snippets of vulnerability and moments of abstraction, that often go unrecognized in the day-to-day. The ocean itself takes on a personality - that of the embracing mother providing a safe space for being - which is both archetypal and poignant. I am as much a subject as the boys for whom I provide solace. The boys climb a large rock, proving their manhood through endurance, fearlessly jump, and become submerged in a moment of innocent unawareness. They emerge having proven themselves. The relationship between myself and the subject is also explored within this paradigm. The subjects are aware of me while posturing, but lose this cognizance when they sink into the water. It is this moment that tells the true story.”
