sx visualities (sxv) is the Small Axe Project platform devoted to visual practice and its place in Caribbean cultural, social, and political life. Since its inception more than twenty years ago, our print journal Small Axe, has been concerned to explore ways in which visual practice, and more generally Caribbean visual culture, has been at the center of the experimental cultural, political, and aesthetic imagination of the region and the diaspora. The journal has consistently featured the work of artists on its covers, developing a distinctive style and sensibility and focus. During this period, also, reflecting our recognition of the increasing importance of visual arts to the self-consciousness of Caribbean critical practices, Small Axe has published visual art portfolios that engage in greater depth the work of contemporary and emerging artists.
The sx visualities platform aims to expand and build on the connection the Small Axe Project has with visual artists to host individual and collaborative projects, presenting visual culture across a range of genres and forms: from photography to the moving image, from performance to architecture, from soundscapes to painting and sculpture. sx visualities offers an enriched, multimedia experience for engaging with artworks created in an increasingly networked environment.
Five areas are included for viewing: sxv catalogues features work from significant funded visual art projects that Small Axe has so far curated; sxv emerging artist showcases portfolios by artists emerging in their own right and reflecting a current generation of practitioners; sxv curation is based on curators being invited to create an online space of exhibition of visual artworks; sx portfolios features the range of artist portfolios available in the print journal that continue to be published; and sxv visual histories explores visual material found in Caribbean collections and archives to reflect a visual past. Over time, we aim to create a significant body of visual material with a scope and breadth that contributes and compliments what has gone before. Our ambition is that it is through further discussion and questioning of visual material created by and about the Caribbean, more progressive insights and meanings may be gained.
Roshini Kempadoo and Daniela Fifi
SXV Editors