Ada M. Patterson uses masquerade, textiles, performance, video and poetry to tell new stories or to reprise old stories and provide them with new meaning. The new video installation 'A Ship of Fools' is a vehicle for different voices, who attempt to find words for their experiences in the difficult times in which we live.
Global climate change affects different people in different ways. Can we find ways to feel each other’s pain, grieve each other’s loss, and relate to what is happening together? And how do we want to move forward together after we have shared our experiences of the crisis?
Patterson translated this desire for empathy, connection and solidarity into a way of working in which collaboration is central. 'A Ship of Fools' is a collaboration with Clementine Edwards, Nicole Jordan, Ark Ramsay and M. Maria Walhout. A leading role in the new work is reserved for music and for kangas – printed cloths that you give to someone else as a personal gift on happy or sad occasions.
Ada M. Patterson (Bridgetown, 1994) works as a visual artist and writer, and lives alternately in Barbados, London and Rotterdam. Patterson was a participant in the Hamburger Community of Art in Rotterdam (2019); has exhibited at Live Art Development Agency (London), Barbados Museum & Historical Society (Bridgetown), Roodkapje (Rotterdam), Ateliers '89 (Oranjestad), Alice Yard (Port of Spain); and has been published in ARC Magazine, Sugarcane Magazine, PREE, Mister Motley and Metropolis M.