West Indian Cyclist 1984

Curator: Welcome. Today, we’re considering Varnette Honeywood’s “West Indian Cyclist,” a mixed-media collage created in 1984. Editor: Immediately, I'm struck by the sense of forward movement, the feeling of an individual pushing boundaries. The cyclist appears calm and resolute amidst what seems to be both an idyllic scene, but also quite abstracted one. Curator: Honeywood often employed collage to build figures and environments. Notice the clean, geometric shapes forming the cyclist and his surroundings, like the rectangles composing his limbs or the thin lines indicating the landscape. The textures also create a unique rhythm for the eyes. Editor: Precisely. The deliberate use of these flat shapes speaks volumes. It reads to me as a conscious flattening of the black figure, nodding to the ways black individuals are often seen—as caricatures—rather than fully fleshed humans with interiority. What do you think? Curator: Interesting perspective, though I initially read the shapes in a less politically charged way. The bright colors – the primary yellows, reds, and greens—feel buoyant. Note, as well, how she employs this relatively limited palette so economically to create distinct textures: the jersey’s flatness set against the landscape. Editor: And yet, consider that within black communities and the diaspora more widely, vibrancy can be a form of resistance, a way to counteract the erasure and marginalization you touched upon. The title directs our understanding – a ‘West Indian Cyclist’ implies diaspora, a disruption from the expected. It seems a powerful celebration and assertion of identity. Curator: I can see that interpretation, yes. I think that both can be right, however. Formally speaking, this work exhibits the simplicity of shape we recognize in children's illustration, yet there is a more mature conceptual rigor underlying it all. The very medium—collage—implies both fragmentation and reunification, reflecting the realities of identity itself. Editor: Yes, the medium definitely lends itself to your reading about reunification, and I certainly believe that there’s also more here beyond a formal analysis as well. Curator: Ultimately, Honeywood creates something striking from basic components, which echoes, in my opinion, our ability as humans to construct something great from minimal means. Editor: And hopefully through more than one lens of history and theory. Let's celebrate more artists who work like this.