This talk is structured in two waves. First, it centres the 2026 exhibition, By These Shores I Was Born, curated by Professor Pearce and installed in Trinidad and Tobago. Ideas of home and belonging are unpacked though visual analyses of work by seven contemporary artists who have moved in and out of the Caribbean, and by way of reflections on Barbadian poet and scholar Kamau Brathwaite’s notion of tidalectics – a psychology and ontological state that has a marine rhythm and contrasts with Western dialectics. The session’s second wave is propelled by the questions: How might these artists’ aesthetic engagements inform museology? How might museum’s rethink collecting practices in ways that are more inclusive? What does it mean to be at home in a museum’s collection? A thesis of tidal action is advanced as a critical methodology.
This event is organised by Daisy Gould, with the support of Professor Dorothy Price,ÌýExecutive Dean and Deputy Director, 91Ó°ÊÓ.
With contributions from:
Marsha Pearce is British Academy Global Professor at the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, and a visual culture scholar at The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus. She is leading the four-year research project (2025-2029) titled Trembling Abode: Reimagining the Museum as Home for Global Majority Artists.