March 17, 2005 – "Transfer," a preview of the "Migration Project" that St. John artist, Janet Cook-Rutnik, has been working on with collaborators for the past two years, will be presented at her studio/gallery, Sólo Arte, in the Cruz Bay Lumberyard at 6 p.m. on Friday.
"Transfer" is a collaborative work on migration that embraces the multi-layers of Caribbean history, economics and identity through a series of shows. The work addresses the Danish transfer of the Virgin Islands to the U.S. in 1917. This multi media art piece includes video, installation and photography. It will be presented on all three islands.
Included in the preview presentation will be a video dealing with people and places during the Transfer period as well as U.S. passport photos from 1918, which were to Virgin Islanders wishing to travel, seek employment, education or medical attention. It wasn't until years later that Virgin Islanders were made US citizens. There will be an installation of life-size images and reproductions of photographic images gleaned from David Knight's collection, the St. Croix Landmarks Society and the Virgin Islands Division of Libraries and Museums.
Under the auspices of the project's major sponsor, the Virgin Islands Cultural Heritage Institute, "Transfer" will be presented as a preview to the Governor's Transfer Day celebrations in St. Thomas at Fort Christian on Wednesday, March 30, at 6 PM.
On Friday, April 15, the show will be presented in St. Croix at the Caribbean Museum Center in Frederiksted. Other show sponsors include the Virgin Islands Council on the Arts, the Caribbean Museum Center and the St. Croix Landmarks Society. This is an ongoing project and each presentation will be a unique experience as the locations vary and the series expands.
Collaborating on this contemporary art piece with Cook-Rutnik are Edgar Endress, an award winning Chilean video artist and his wife, Lori Lee, an archaeologist whose dissertation is on the African Diaspora. Advisors to the project include St. John scholars Dr. Gilbert Sprauve, Mr. Elroy Sprauve, and David Knight. National Park resource people, Denise Georges and Rafe Boulon also participated.
At Friday's show the artists will give a talk beginning at 6:30 p.m. For more information please call Janet Cook-Rutnik at Sólo Arte, 715-2150, or at 693-8069. To learn more about this project visit www.bondieubon.net.
