Chain of Love - Downtown Kingston Climate Change Art Project

CHAIN OF LOVE - DOWNTOWN KINGSTON CLIMATE CHANGE ART PARK
Excerpt of press release by Olivia Douglas, Kingston Creative

On May 23, Jamaica’s Labour Day, Camille Chedda’s ‘Chain of Love’ opened with Kingston Creative in Parade Gardens in Downtown Kingston. Last March, Muhannad Shono’s ‘A Forgotten Place’ opened in Alserkal Avenue, Dubai and Io Makandal’s ‘Ophidian’s Promise’ opened in Victoria Yards, Johannesburg, South Africa on May 15. This event completed the trilogy of projects of the Global Co-Commission.  

The commissioning of a public sculpture by Chedda for A Feral Commons has sparked a full rehabilitation of the park by the Kingston and St. Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAC) and resulted in a multimillion-dollar transformation into a public green space. The renaming of the park in honour of a key community member, Joseph Manning, and the forging of this new park identity is an apt metaphor for the renewal of community spirit and their ownership of this space for the future.

Chedda’s intent was to create a sculptural, functional and interactive work that utilise the overgrowth of foliage that emerged years of neglect. Her art aims to bring the community together in positive ways, involving them in the creation of the artwork and shifting thinking about preserving the environment and living within an interspecies ecosystem. The park is intended to support future generations in utilising it as a place of learning, play, care and rest, by seeing it as an extension of themselves.

The Global Co-Commission engages three cultural districts across three continents to explorethe intersection of art, sustainability, and community engagement. This pioneering effort is designed to prototype and document principles for responsible public art commissioning amidst the escalating climate crisis. These commissions in Jamaica, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates are not isolated but are conceived and produced in dialogue with each other. This collaborative approach underscores the need for cultural districts across the world to share knowledge and resources, creating a collective voice to address pressing global issues.

June 2024