Michael Lam b . Guyana 1973 ; works in Georgetown
Devotion Point ( Bushy Park , Parika , Essequibo , Guyana ) from the series , Oniabo , 2013 Archival pigment print on canvas
Courtesy of the artist and Aljira , a Center for Contemporary Art , Newark , New Jersey
Michael Lam ’ s ongoing Oniabo series transports the viewer to Guyana ’ s coastlines and shorelines . “ The photographer , who is first trained as a biologist , is intentional in using “ oniabo ” to name the series , a word taken from the language of the Arawak people meaning “ water .”
The stark black and white seascape of Devotion Point , and the sense of timelessness it embodies in its aesthetic , implore the viewer to meditate on Guyana ’ s historical and pivotal relationship with water as a great threshold : A sacred natural resource for the country ’ s first people , the Amerindians , the means where European colonizers first arrived , the traumatic Trans-Atlantic Middle Passage that brought Africans to toil its soil , and a visceral reminder of precarious indentured immigrant crossings for Indians and Chinese . As the notable Caribbean poet Derek Walcott wrote in his 1930 poem of the same name , “ The sea is History .” In the tranquil scene of Devotion Point taken in Essequibo , jhandi flags planted on bamboo poles indicate that an Indian Hindu religious ceremony , a puja , has been performed . Here the image and title of “ devotion ” are both symbolic — it is where ancestral histories , trauma , survival , and spiritual desire all share space .