Kevin Darmanie, (Selfie World) Self As A Fetish, 22 x 30in, watercolor on paper, 2019.
In Disco Calypso, Kevin Darmanie explores the ongoing exchange between Caribbean and American cultural expression through an immersive installation combining video, painting, pattern, sound, and live DJ performances. Centered on a Trinidad Carnival masquerader moving through the streets of Newark, the work traces how Carnival’s music, fashion, dance, and pageantry shaped—and were reshaped by—disco culture of the 1970s and 1980s. Disco Calypso also considers the tensions within this cultural exchange, asking how art and celebration can both bridge and obscure ethnic, economic, and political differences.
