Catalogue > At random

The Warming Plateau is a film recorded on Tobago, an island unique among the former British West Indies in that much of its West African heritage survived the obliterating effects of slavery and exists in vibrant tradition long into the present day.  One segment of the film recalls the legend of Gang Gang Sarah, the ‘African slave witch’ who, wishing to return to her homeland, climbed the sacred Silk Cotton tree and tried to fly. But Gang Gang Sarah did not realise she had lost her powers of flight after eating salt, and fell to her death. The other segment of the film shows four men cutting their way through the jungle, making measurements, calling out to each other, working on something that comes into focus as a kind of land claim or marking of territory. The film as a whole is a portrait of the island as a sentient being, showing sites of past and present exploitation. 

Santiago Mostyn – born in San Francisco but with strong ties to Grenada, Zimbabwe and Trinidad & Tobago – currently lives in Sweden. Mostyn works and lives between these cultures, often creating a context for reflection on privilege, inclusion and utility. With his films, photographs and installations, he sets up a framework to test how wide or narrow the apparent divide is between different social spheres. He employs an intuitive creative process and points to a knowledge and history grounded in the body rather than the rational mind. Through his work, Mostyn creates a balance between intuition and reason, dreams and waking states, and offers the audience a fresh way of seeing and contextualizing their everyday experiences. Mostyn is a graduate of Yale University, Städelschule in Frankfurt, and the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm. He is currently co-curator of “The Moderna Exhibition 2018: With the Future Behind Us”, Moderna Museet’s quadrennial survey of contemporary art in Sweden.