Joshua Lue Chee Kong

Spirit of Vermont

As the 2017 Reed Foundation Fellowship recipient, I was given the chance to spend a month at the Vermont Studio Centre, USA.  My first two weeks were spent gathering and collecting historical references of Johnson via artefacts, architectural rubbings, imagery and stories from the residents. This is a site-specific piece as all of the objects were gathered from around the town, from the chair to the leaves on the floor.

Most of my work deals with memory, a memory of a place and time. Memories are always in a perpetual movement, moving forwards and backwards in time. It questions our own existence of what is real and what is created from our imagination. It is with this in mind that I was able to make the Spirit of Vermont as it is a reimaging of the history of 19th Century New England and what if that history was invaded by the Taino culture of the Caribbean. These two cultures from these two different time periods would have never met each other. The Spirit of Vermont is the result of this juxtaposition as it is the creation of a new narrative that reflects on the present day diaspora and how different cultures moves around and adapt to other cultures.

Many thanks to Vermont Studio Center, Johnson Historical Society and Ebenezer Books as it would not have been possible without your guidance.