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<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://buzz-caribbean.com/app/uploads/2019/09/windrush-buzz-feature-8-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-8731" /><figcaption>Visual artist Kirk Cockburn explains his pieces (left) to specially invited members of the Windrush generation at the Arrivals section of the Norman Manley Internation Airport in Kingston. (Photo: Dennis Brown)</figcaption></figure>
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<p>Vilified on their arrival, excluded from
the country they rebuilt and now celebrated for their determination, the
Windrush generation, its descendants and their collective experiences speak
louder than ever through a mural exhibition.</p>
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<p>The exhibition was unveiled at the Norman
Manley International Airport (NMIA) late August to much fanfare. Six artists are
responsible for the works: Rosemarie Chung, Tiana Anglin, Sheldon Blake, Jamila
Cooper, Honey Williams and Kirk Coburn.</p>
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<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://buzz-caribbean.com/app/uploads/2019/09/windrush-buzz-feature-9-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-8732" /><figcaption>Master artist Sheldon Blake and one of his pieces in the Windrush Exhibition (Photo: Dennis Brown)</figcaption></figure>
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<h2>Moving murals: A travelling showcase</h2>
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<p>Unlike other collections, the Windrush
exhibition is a travelling showcase – which will spend two months in various
sections of the Arrivals and Departure lobbies before being unveiled elsewhere
across the island.</p>
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<p>The project, a collaborative effort by the Ministry of Culture and the British Council, conveys the everyday struggles faced by Jamaican men and women who left their homeland at the height of the Windrush movement between the late 1940s and 1970s.</p>
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<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://buzz-caribbean.com/app/uploads/2019/09/windrush-buzz-feature-10-1024x654.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-8737" /><figcaption>Women of the Windrush: These brave women were among the thousands of  West Indians who answered the call to rebuild Britain after World War 2. This generation of mass migrators is often referred to as the Windrush generation (Photo: Dennis Brown)</figcaption></figure>
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<p>The exhibition is a powerful, poignant
collection of abstract symbolism; sometimes contemporary or representational, but
always thought-provoking art. </p>
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<h2>Grange: 'Despite the setbacks, Jamaicans persevered'</h2>
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<p>During her speech, Minister Olivia Grange noted
that the Windrush exhibition stands as a celebration of Jamaican triumph and
survival – despite the incredible challenges faced in a country far from home
in post-WWII Britain.</p>
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<p>The 14-piece mural collection tells the
narrative from a Jamaican perspective, both for those who left as well as for
those who stayed behind.</p>
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<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://buzz-caribbean.com/app/uploads/2019/09/windrush-buzz-feature-12-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-8733" /><figcaption>Minister of Culture, Entertainment, Gender, Information and Sport Olivia 'Babsy' Grange (Photo: Dennis Brown)</figcaption></figure>
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<p>“We honour the Windrush generation for
their resilience and determination as they stepped out into uncharted waters. We
salute the Windrush generation for their indomitable spirit; the decision to
leave their families to travel to an unknown land,” the minister explained.</p>
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<p>“Like their ancestors before them, they were not daunted by the challenges, from the climactic shock of cold, rainy England to the prejudices and discomforts of settling in a new and often unwelcoming environment. Being alone in a strange land of reluctant neighbours, our people experienced every challenge in the book of ignorance and racism,” Grange noted.</p>
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<p>For his part, British High Commissioner to Jamaica Asif Ahmad said that while the exhibition won’t undo the damage done to the Windrush generation, he hopes it will continue the conversation as to why their contribution to the redevelopment of England is unmatched.</p>
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<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://buzz-caribbean.com/app/uploads/2019/09/windrush-buzz-feature-13-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-8734" /><figcaption>British High Commissioner to Jamaica Asif Ahmad (Photo: Dennis Brown)</figcaption></figure>
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<p>“We, through the British Government,
bequeath and entrust this wonderful art to you. Preserve it. Show it for
generations to come. The name ‘Windrush’ evokes a lot of emotions but it is
something that we will cherish. The suffering will not be forgotten. Some of it
will be paid for in cash but money can never replace the hurt and pain that was
caused,” High Commissioner Ahmad remarked.</p>
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<p>“But I hope, as people make journeys to the
future, we will shape a different future where the journeys that began out of
Africa came here and we’ll hear the voice of the Windrush generation for generations,”
he further argued.</p>
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<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://buzz-caribbean.com/app/uploads/2019/09/windrush-buzz-feature-5-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-8738" /><figcaption>Master painter 'Rozi' Chung gives an explanation on behalf of fellow artist Jamila Cooper (Photo: Dennis Brown)</figcaption></figure>
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<h2>Through the eyes of the artists themselves</h2>
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<p>For Studio 174 founder ‘Rozi’ Chung, the motivation
behind the pieces really speak for themselves, and quite loudly, too…</p>
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<p>Chung told <strong>BUZZ</strong> that aside from music, for which the island is renowned worldwide,
she and her fellow artists wanted to capture a more profound, vulnerable side
to our people and our experiences.</p>
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<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://buzz-caribbean.com/app/uploads/2019/09/windrush-buzz-feature-6-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-8735" /><figcaption>Rosemarie Chung emphasising the Jamaican Reggae's contribution during the Windrush migration to help keep the struggling Jamaican communities together (Photo: Dennis Brown)</figcaption></figure>
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<p>“We could connect to the emotional side of
living in Jamaica. We wanted to show that deeper side of us through the visual
arts,” Rozi Chung said.</p>
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<p>&nbsp;“There is this side in Jamaica that we don’t talk about. What about the side of leaving family behind? The Windrush story goes on…people are having it very difficult as we speak. Our Jamaican people, they were young, they were willing, they came to build back England and they were very proud of this,” Chung told <strong>BUZZ</strong>.</p>
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<p>“All the works have symbolic references. We
want you to search, think a little bit and try to take the image and explore
our culture,” she further asserted.</p>
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<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://buzz-caribbean.com/app/uploads/2019/09/windrush-buzz-feature-7-1024x683.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-8740" /><figcaption>Kirk Cockburn and his Windrush pieces (Photo: Dennis Brown)</figcaption></figure>
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<p><strong>BUZZ</strong> was told that the theme was based on true Windrush accounts as the
art focuses on past, present and future in a Jamaican context.</p>
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<p>For Tiana Anglin, the idea of re-telling Jamaican experiences on such a platform is good, especially for some Jamaicans who may have heard about Windrush but not be able to connect with the struggles.</p>
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<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://buzz-caribbean.com/app/uploads/2019/09/windrush-buzz-feature-3-1024x682.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-8736" /><figcaption>Tiana Anglin and her three powerful impressions of the Windrush experience (Photo: Dennis Brown)</figcaption></figure>
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<p>“It’s interesting because a lot of the stories we hear about Windrush are written documents or documentaries and we hear people telling these stories, but you don’t often get to see the visual part of it. It’s that we get a chance [now] to show our perspective through our craft,” she told the <strong>BUZZ</strong> team.</p>
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<p>Master painter and poet Sheldon Blake
shared a similar sentiment when he spoke to <strong>BUZZ</strong> – noting that Jamaicans have an innate gift to persevere,
regardless of the incredible odds we’re sometimes faced with.</p>
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<p>“There’s an amazing strength within us to survive and as an artist, I wanted to capture that essence. I want Jamaicans to take from my work that it is important to know self; to know who you are and where you’re from,” Blake told <strong>BUZZ</strong>.</p>
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<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://buzz-caribbean.com/app/uploads/2019/09/windrush-buzz-feature-1.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-8741" /><figcaption>Honey Williams, a British artist with Jamaican ancestry, gives her take as a descendant of the Windrush generation and the struggles they still face in the UK today (Photo: Dennis Brown)</figcaption></figure>
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<p>Understandably, while there was much hurt for
Jamaicans and other Caribbean nationals who migrated to rebuild a country in
ruin, the Windrush exhibition also captures hope and the inextinguishable pride
as West Indians, wherever we go.</p>
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<p>“I want Jamaicans to feel good that we are
explaining our history from a Jamaican point of view rather than reading it from
someone else from a different country,” Rosemarie Chung told <strong>BUZZ</strong>.</p>
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<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://buzz-caribbean.com/app/uploads/2019/09/windrush-buzz-feature-11.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-8742" /><figcaption>More from Honey Williams (Photo: Dennis Brown)</figcaption></figure>
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<p>“For Jamaica to deal with history in this
contemporary manner, we’re doing great by moving in that direction and we’d
like to see more of that: the art being used to tell our stories,” she added.</p>
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