How does the passport both cast and miscast us ? Jamaican-born Albert Chong , who is of African and Chinese heritage , explores issues of identity as a way to both construct and reconstruct the oft-erased history of the Chinese diaspora in Jamaica and throughout the Caribbean . It ’ s a history that remains under-examined : the system of British indentured servitude between 1854 and 1940 that replaced African slavery in the Caribbean with Indian and Chinese laborers .
Chong ’ s My Jamaican Passport is a still life , a photographic intervention to counter such kinds of erasures and absences . It is centered on the identity page of his Jamaican passport , where the handwritten contents denote his profession , birthdate , birthplace , and physical attributes . A photo of the artist as his younger self is prominently featured on the open-faced passport page , reverently laid out with found objects , including beads and cowrie shells . According to Chong , the picture ’ s construction is a shrine , “ an act of reverence seeking to restore the souls of these ancestors of mine .” The weight of it all is contained in a lustrous copper frame , etched with Chong ’ s drawings , personal writings , and imprints . The copper ’ s unique patina , which bears literary meaning as having a misleading surface appearance , adds a nuanced and poetic reading to the figure both cast and miscast in My Jamaican Passport . In the artist ’ s words , “ I have come to realize that I am a walking repository of cultural , familial and genetic information . I , like others who trace their ancestry to foreign shores , am duty-bound and responsible to my descendants for passing on my personal and familial stories and , ultimately , the stories of culture and race .”
The found objects and vernacular forms which constitute Chong ’ s personal , rather than official , identity become those which represent him . The cowries and ancient currency are fiat for his reconfigured value system . His refusal of the passport is also an affirmation of the self .
— Conor Andrich Museum and Cultural Heritage Studies , Art History
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