Alex Burke was born in Martinique in 1944 and now works in France.
Working from memory and historical narratives has been a way to question my "collective memory," to summon the constituent elements of the Caribbean identity. I have tried to make that confused past become visible; I have placed objects together and created a world of odds and ends. That is the very characteristic of the Caribbean: building up on a field of ruins, fertilizing a field of corpses, patching things up, making treasure of nothing (“Exhibitions: Infinite Island”).
This is a reference to African Vodun, “where dolls become the embodiment of the invisible spirit.” Vodum and other cultural references focus on the positive aspects of one’s identity and continuously remind people of their roots, and thus the strength of their identity.
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