Spotlight

07/31/24

In the wake of his recent show titled “Landfish,” we spoke with artist Kennedy Wilks to learn about his latest body of work.

It was originally just something my dad said one time when I was moving really slowly, lol. It wasn’t a deep thing, but the word just stayed in my head. Then I started to think and realized that all my life I’ve felt out of place. It’s not a deep thing that affects me, but I just think about it. For example, there was a long time when I was the only Black kid in my school when I was younger. Even separately from that, a lot of the time I just feel like I think and do things differently than a lot of other people. So yeah, it just comes from that idea of being out of place and displaced having been born in Bermuda but leaving when I was young, being from Jamaica but never living there, and never feeling like a real Londoner either.

But on the positive side, it’s the idea that despite that, the mindset is to be able to move with the same agility as a fish in water on land. Even when you feel out of place, you need to be able to adapt, figure things out, and make it happen. That’s what I did through putting on the show, that’s what I’ll continue to do, and that’s what I encourage other people to do.

Well the whole collection is significant to me but I think i'd say ‘these three trees,’ for me it’s basically just a lot of things that i think about/inspire how i move in one piece. kennedy kayah kenza (my brother and sister), mind body spirit,bermuda, jamaica, london fear, doubt, me from yesterday.

Also was thinking about the chinese proverb - ‘best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago the second best time is now’

Speaks to that idea of doing what you need to do today not tomorrow. start right now since time waits for no man.

Everything I feel, think, and experience feeds into my practice, so it plays a big role because it plays a big role in my life. A lot of the time, I feel like I don’t really belong. As I mentioned when explaining the 'landfish' idea—being born in Bermuda but leaving when I was young, being from Jamaica but never living there, and never feeling like a real Londoner—it’s kind of like wherever I am, I'm not fully supposed to be there. I don’t feel any type of way about it though, to be honest. It's just on my mind. I feel out of place, but I'm still happy to be myself and confident in myself because I feel like I have something special. And that’s not me being overconfident; I only think I'm special in the same way I think everyone should think that about themselves, you know? Because if you don’t believe in yourself, then why would anyone else?

I just wanted to make sure everyone felt the warmth, sunshine, love, and unity. I’m not really looking for anyone to interpret the work in a particular way. Of course, I have my own thoughts and narratives that go into the pieces, but I just put them out there, and you can interpret them however you like. Part of the fun for me is hearing how other people see the work. I just want everyone to connect to it in their own way.

That’s why I don’t really put descriptions of my pieces—I think it stifles how other people can see it differently, you know? If I just tell you what it is, it doesn’t leave it up to any interpretation or conversation. So I always like to ask people what they think about a piece first before I explain more of what went into it.

Mainly old pictures of me and my family and things my parents used to tell me. For example, “Bird can’t fly on one wing” is something my mom always used to say to me when she kissed me on the cheek.

The reference for “Cutting Cane, Early Morning 1973” was a photograph in the Jamaican National Gallery. I was also thinking about how my grandad told my dad it was “the cane fields or the books” whenever he didn’t want to study, and my dad told me, “It’s the books or flipping burgers,” ahahahaha. So, I was thinking about the power of choice.

What were your earliest introductions to visual art? Why pursue this pathway? 

My dad is my favorite artist, and I grew up seeing all his work in my house. But that’s not the reason I'm an artist; he never tells me to do anything specific. He just says to decide whatever you want to do and go all in on it. I wasn’t painting for a while, but something just came to me like a year and a half ago. In my head, I knew I wanted to start painting again, so I just did it, and now I'm taking it as far as I can. There are deeper reasons for why I do it, too, but what it really comes down to is I just love having ideas and then putting in the work to see them come to real life. It's fun to me.

Sometimes I just need to put on some music and I'm #ready, lol. But most of the time, I just get into that zone in the evening randomly and paint in silence straight away.

Photos: Selected Works by Kiera Grace

What advice would you share with another young creative?

Invest in yourself, take a risk everyday, share your work.