The Camouflage Act

This body of work was created in Barbados during an Australia Council funded residency in 2016. The photographic series brings together photographic portraits, landscapes and video works that explore the legacy of British colonisation, slavery and notions of belonging. In Barbadian law ‘The Camouflage Act’ forbids civilians from wearing any camouflage clothing. The law, which is enforced by the police, reflects broader notions of the visibility and invisibility of power in Barbados. Considered to be the first British plantation experiment, Barbados’ rich and complex history is a mix of colonialism, African slavery, Anglo indentured servitude and the myth of absent indigenous Amerindians. Like the population, the flora and fauna are predominantly explanted, with only one gully on the island containing indigenous plant life. These digital and analogue photographs and video works explore the politics of space, displacement, identity and belonging in Barbados where the traces of empire are palpable. Each of the Barbadian women pictured helped me to understand their relationship to the land and their positioning within the contested space of island culture, defying the stereotype of a utopian paradise. This body of work extends Bolatagici’s interest in centering marginalised identities through the visual exploration of counter-narrative.