Rampa, in partnership with Cork Printmakers, is pleased to present the first solo show in Portugal by Irish artist Marianne Keating, opening on 18 October 2019 at 9:30 pm. ‘Better Must Come’ brings together selection of films made in the last years and is curated by Miguel Amado, director of Cork Printmakers.
Marianne Keating addresses the connections between Ireland and the Caribbean in the context of both the British Empire and the present day. In the exhibition Better Must Come, she explores the largely unknown history of the Irish diaspora in Jamaica, initiated in the framework of the country’s plantation economy.
Keating examines the wave of immigration from Ireland to Jamaica, then British colonies, that occurred between 1835 and 1842, in the aftermath of the abolition of slavery. Keating also considers the contemporary legacy of Irish settlement in Jamaica, looking at topics such as creolisation and the political system. Keating’s films combine a range of archival materials – including government documents and photographs – found footage and extracts of written sources – from sociological essays to newspapers articles – with her own video recordings, interviews and field notes. She uses text as caption or voice-over to complement the image and sound, overlaying information to amplify the depicted perspectives.
