Khadija Benn b . Canada 1986 ; works in Georgetown , Guyana
Amalivaca , 2012 Archival pigment print on canvas Courtesy of the artist and Aljira , a Center for Contemporary Art , Newark , New Jersey
Khadija Benn ’ s painterly portraits , lush with color , light , and a heavyhanded brush of glamour and romanticism , might appear as a replica of the ‘ picturing paradise ’ photographs that dominate Caribbean visual culture . However , it is very this aesthetic the artist exploits in her oeuvre by inserting the female body in Guyana ’ s landscapes via self-portraiture .
Benn ’ s training as a cartographer informs much of her digital photography practice and leads her across remote places , like the Rupununi grasslands featured in Amalivaca , a work that confronts the underlying histories that have created this complex space and the contemporary framing of it as exotic . While Amerindians have called the Rupununi home since the 18th century , this landscape has seen much loss : disease epidemics brought on by early European arrivals devastated populations of indigenous peoples . In Benn ’ s act of ( re ) claiming space and ownership of this sweeping vista , Amalivaca becomes an image bridging the land ’ s past and present . The subject ’ s face is pseudo-hidden , her posture is captured mid-turn , begging the questions : Is she running away from or returning towards homeland ? Is this a site of terror or beauty ? Or , both ?