Jade Montserrat is a U.K based artist and writer living and working in Scarborough, North Yorkshire. Montserrat is known for her dedication to address the deep rooted racism, gender inequality and discrimination engrained in so many art institutions. Using a wide variety of materials and techniques from drawing and painting to performance, film and use of text. Montserrat intertwines art with activism and often use techniques such as ;phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax to to highlight the defects in our understanding of culture.
Montserrat has notably started a collaborative project; “Rainbow Tribe: Affectionate Movement R&R'“ The combinations of these two phrases is interesting, affectionate movement is a reference to Nina Kane ‘s anthology ‘Reflections on Female and Trans* Masculinities and Other Queer Crossings’ which describes “an approach to exploring shifts in freedom, agency, ethics, care, and being in a community.” Furthermore, ‘Rainbow Tribe’ is a reference toJosephines Bakers experiment ‘The Rainbow Tribe’ in which she adopted twelve ethically diverse children all from different unalike backgrounds. Baker’s idealistic hopes of a mixed-race family spotlights the ever-continuing problems and protests surrounding cultural diversity and political freedom. This is such an interesting concept and experiment as despite Bakers intentions and effort you cannot fix a global problem with a flawed solution, race and ethnicity is a part of us and the discard rather than to embrace these aspects is not and ‘affectionate movement’ for these children. In “Rainbow Tribe: Affectionate Movement R&R'“ Monterserrat showcases a wall drawing made from charcoal and whitewash, completely= encompassing the gallery’s walls using text from her research on the matter. The piece is the brought to a new level as she invites multiple artists and members of the original rainbow tribe to expresses themselves and sculpt the walls. All participants are invited to erase and highlight elements of her text they see fit. This representation of being present and then erased by a group may feel very potent and real for some cultural minorities. This piece also presents the genuine process of art creation, he journey all pieces go through; being there and then being gone. It narrates the deletion and exaggeration of many elements of our lives, including cultures, differences in sex, differences in religion and also thoughts, feelings and companionships.
https://www.castlefieldgallery.co.uk/event/artist-talk-jade-montserrat/
http://www.spacestudios.org.uk/exhibition-programme/future-space/jade-montserrat-rainbow-tribe-affectionate-movement-rr/
http://www.metalculture.com/artists-area/jade-montserrat/
https://www.artsinconversation.com/interviews/2018/jade-montserrat