Jamaican Artist

Camille Chedda

 
Camille Chedda

Camille Chedda's talent is precocious. As a fairly recent graduate of the Edna Manley College (Dip.Hons, 2007) she has already established an enviable exhibition record, having her works appear in in two Jamaica National Biennials (2006, 2008) as well as the Curator's Eye exhibition Materializing Slavery, where her slave ship imagery shared space with established artists such as Omari Ra and David Boxer. Her success speaks to the sophistication of her vision as well as her ability to execute her ideas in ways that are well defined and very contemporary.

The body as an icon and vehicle of personal and social statement is a central feature of Chedda's work. Sometimes we witness her own body wrapped in black plastic protesting its encasement and the restrictions placed on personal freedom. At other times, the body is anonymous, like those morbid forms stacked supine alongside each other, as they are squeezed into the hold of a middle passage container. More recently, her ideas have laid claim to Laura Facey's monument Redemption Song (2007), as she re-interprets societal angst over their nudity and impotency. In all these scenarios Chedda uses the body as a site of contention, although regularly gagged, they speak volumes about her concern for societal issues and human rights.