Quilt to perform at Last Sundays

The National Gallery of Jamaica's Last Sundays programme, set for September 25, will feature a performance by the award-winning Quilt Performing Arts Company, as well as guided tours of the Kingston - Part 1: The City and Art exhibition.

Kingston - Part 1: The City and Art examines how Jamaica's turbulent capital city has generated many of the circumstances and opportunities that have propelled the development of Jamaican art. This covers from the natural resources to the economic activities and institutions and the events, big and small, that have marked the city's history.

The exhibition features works of art that date from the late 17th century to the present day and portrays life in the city in all its diversity, seen through the eyes of artists such as Isaac Mendez Belisario, Sidney McLaren, David Pottinger, Osmond Watson, Carl Abrahams, Andy Jefferson, Edna Manley, Cecil Baugh, Kapo, Michael Lester and Roy Reid.

The exhibition also features the iconic Jamaican feature film The Harder They Come (1972, dir. Perry Henzell), which is in many ways also a portrait of Kingston and, particularly, a time capsule of life in the city in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The exhibition was curated by National Gallery assistant curator Monique Barnett-Davidson and continues until October 30, 2016.

Using Caribbean rhythms, merging poetry, dance and music, the Quilt performers have developed their unique performance style and an evolving devised theatre technique. The performance at Last Sundays on September 25 will consist of Revolution (2016) and a new work that is yet to be titled. Revolution looks at hegemony and the 'zambification' of the human race. It travels through stage vignettes from the slave ships to the sound boxes of Kingston.

The National Gallery's doors will be open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and the Quilt performance will start at 1:30 pm. Admission and guided tours will be free, but contributions to the National Gallery's donations box will be gratefully accepted.