Frederick Calmes, a young Haitian painter, sculptor, and digital artist residing in the Netherlands, has been an “Artist in Residence” on St. Eustatius for the past four weeks. The St. Eustatius Afrikan Burial Ground Alliance (in short, “the Alliance”) invited Calmes to create several digital artworks for the family heritage project "Remember Statia: Tracing Our Origins," which received funding from the Mondriaan Foundation. Calmes’ work focuses on storytelling and spirituality, and that is precisely the core topic of what the family heritage project entails.
Spiritual connection to our Ancestors
Kenneth Cuvalay, president of the Alliance: “Our project originates in the archaeological excavations of 69 of our ancestors from the Golden Rock plantation who were dug up from their graves without consent of the community. Much of our work consists of activism, meetings, and talking, but it is equally important to also process on a spiritual level what has happened to our ancestors. Art is a powerful way to do this and connect the community's spirit to its ancestors on a whole new level.”
Frederick Calmes proved to be the perfect candidate for the “Artist in Residence" program. The stories written by the project participants are very much stories of migration. Migration is in the Caribbean's DNA, and the exceptional stories prove that St. Eustatius is no exception. On the contrary, Frederick's life serves as a symbol of migration, and the Caribbean people have always found inspiration in Haiti's successful conquest of the colonial powers.
A dream come true
Wednesday, September 4, Fredrick Calmes will travel back to Amsterdam. As Calmes reflects back on the past few weeks: “The project has been a dream come true for me. Everything I do as an artist is in honor of our Afrikan ancestors, so this project is deeply meaningful. Although I didn’t know much about the history of St. Eustatius before, visiting the island was an experience beyond words. Thank you, St. Eustatius.”
The Alliance anticipates publishing the collected stories of the project along with the artwork in November 2024.
