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Olivia Mcgilchrist

Ernestine and me

Installation multimédia | dv | couleur | 10:0 | Jamaïque | 2012

In Ernestine and me (2012) my alter-ego ?Whitey? presents herself as a cultural object to a range of contemporary Jamaicans, exposing their varied reactions to this forced encounter. This experimental video offers a double take on contemporary Jamaican life for a returning white female of part- Jamaican origin; with no living Jamaican relatives remaining, and very little information about my Jamaican heritage. Ernestine was my black great-grandmother, which I only discovered two years ago in a family photograph found at my late grandfather?s house upon my return to the island.

100 word bioraphy Born in Kingston (Jamaica) in 1981 to a French mother and a Jamaican father and educated in France and the U.K., I moved back to Jamaica in 2011 after completing a Photography M.A. at the London College of Communication in 2010. Since this sudden return, I have indulged my alter-ego Whitey in her appropriation of this space of utter difference; Jamaica; by exploring trans-location and physical expressions of emotional states in the search for my cultural identity. My practice has incorporated my body, remapping it within the tropical picturesque through photographic tableaux, performances and multi-layered videos.