Christopher Cozier lives and works in Port of Spain, Trinidad. Cozier is an artist, writer and curator, whose work aims to explore and affect conventional readings of the Caribbean.
2021 Biennial Year Find out more
Cozier’s practice is informed by the writings and the life journey of C.L.R James, a Trinidadian historian, journalist and socialist, who was a leading voice of Pan Africanism. For Cozier, the Caribbean is a fluid space and an ongoing negotiation with shifting narratives and interpretations. From notebook drawings to video installations, Cozier’s artistic practice investigates how historical and current experiences inform our understanding of the wider contemporary world. He is the co-director of Alice Yard and a 2013 Prince Claus Award laureate. Recent exhibitions include 14th Sharjah Biennial, UAE (2019); Historisk Museum, Norway (2019); 10th Berlin Biennale, Germany (2018); and Museum of Latin American Art, USA (2017).
Liverpool Biennial 2021
'Turbulence'
Christopher Cozier presented a series of newly commissioned drawings at Lush Building. A continuation of his ‘Dark Circles’ project (2014-ongoing), the work, ‘turbulence’ (2019–2021), responds to the threat of the global petroleum economy on the social space and on the environment. Exploring the modern economic and environmental history, Cozier extends the notion of the Caribbean as a space where transnational trading of bodies and raw materials largely drove the global modern economy. Interested in Sylvia Wynter’s rethinking of what constitutes “human” and Amitav Ghosh’s questions on ecology, imagination and science fiction, Cozier’s drawings depict mysterious hybrid creatures which represent the entanglement and assimilation of Carribbean and world histories.
Commissioned by Liverpool Biennial.
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Christopher Cozier, turbulence, 2019–2021. Installation view at Lush Building, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Photography: Stuart Whipps
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Christopher Cozier, turbulence, 2019–2021. Installation view at Lush Building, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Photography: Rob Battersby
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Christopher Cozier, turbulence, 2019–2021. Installation view at Lush Building, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Photography: Stuart Whipps
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Christopher Cozier, turbulence, 2019–2021. Installation view at Lush Building, Liverpool Biennial 2021. Photography: Stuart Whipps
