Intimate Moments

Angelique Nixon's review of the exhibition ‘Intimate Moments’ by Trinidadian artist Shalini Seereeram at the Y Art Gallery in Port of Spain from 2014:

“In her 14-year career, Shalini has shared the most beautiful of moments through paintings, and in this new collection, she has made her work very personal and powerfully intimate. Shalini explains in her artist statement that this body of work is about her life’s experiences and moments of emotion and transition. She says that “Intimacy to me is not purely physical; it is an emotional dance that interplays within ourselves. It does not always accompany a sexual interlude, but in fact, is the intensity one experiences within a chapter of our existence.” “Intimate Moments” offers a dynamic interplay of movement and exchange between women, with representations of women loving women and radical acts of care for self and others. The intimacy displayed between and among the women, the intimate moments of introspection across the collection, resonate strongly as what I am calling the terrains of female desire. Hence, I see the collection as offering a visual terrain of what it may mean for women to love women in the Caribbean. It means affirming female desires for self and for other women. It means visually representing same-sex desire through women’s bodies in motion and caressing, touching and loving selves.

This new collection can be seen as a sharing of stories, a call for loving acceptance of each other, and perhaps a reminder of what it means to be our full selves in spite of discrimination and silence. These pieces unsilence same-sex desire. These pieces move us to a space of belonging and determined embrace. And more specifically, she says that she wanted to represent emotional intimacy, and she was ready to share in this personal way and reflect on her own experiences...“this show is a journey about exploring love and emotional connectivity, but it’s also about the experience of intimacy, with yourself, and even when it’s painful.””

-Women-loving Women and Radical Acts of Self Care in Shalini Seereeram’s “Intimate Moments”

Image caption: The Promise. Photograph of artwork courtesy of Seereeram for ARC Magazine