Lee Scratch Perry: Black Ark.

Ausgangspunkt des Buchs "Black Ark" mit dem bis zuletzt in der Schweiz lebenden jamaikanischen Musiker und Künstler Lee «Scratch» Perry (1936–2021) bildet ein ausführliches fotografisches und schriftliches Inventar (Frühjahr 2021) der Black Ark Studios in Kingston, Jamaika, wo Lee ab 1973 seine Musik produzierte: Er war einer der prägenden Pioniere des Dub – einem elektronischen Subgenre des Reggae, das sich Samplings, Loopings, Remixings sowie Reverbs und Echos für das Schaffen wie auch die Bearbeitung und Appropriation bereits bestehender Songs und Tracks bedient. An diesem Ur-Ort des Dub fand Lee «Scratch» Perrys musikalische Herangehensweise erstmals auch ihre visuelle Entsprechung, die sein Werk als bildender Künstler prägte: in Form von kontinuierlich fortgeführten Wandmalereien und -zeichnungen sowie gestaltwandlerischen Assemblagen, bestehend aus Platten, Instrumenten, Gefundenem, Postern sowie Zeitungs- oder Zeitschriftenbildern und appropriierten Büchern – eigentliche Strata, die sich mit der Architektur des Ortes, aber auch dem sich darin befindlichen Mobiliar und schliesslich der Biografie und Persona Perrys assoziativ-rhizomatisch verbinden. Perry schuf sich so ein ganz eigenes, dichtes Universum, das, bevor es ein für allemal verschwindet, in "Black Ark" festgehalten wird: die Liegenschaft ist mittlerweile verkauft. Mit der fotografischen Dokumentation einher ging auch die Sicherung und Konservierung der Perry’schen Objekte, Werke und Aufnahmeträger im Rahmen eines Projekts in Zusammenarbeit mit der Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. In dem im Austausch mit Perry konzipierten Buch, sollen sich Rhythmik und die Schichtung collagierender Verfahren spiegeln und auf inhaltlicher wie materieller Ebene erfahrbar werden. In "Black Ark" verschränken sich verschiedene mediale und zeitliche Ebenen. Aufnahmen des Black Ark Studios aus den letzten Jahren werden Material aus alten Dokumentarfilmen und Archivbildern aus Perrys Fundus gegenübergestellt. Die Idee des «Hauses» dient dabei sowohl als Arbeitshypothese wie auch als Metapher: Es ist Ausgangs- wie Endpunkt verschiedener thematischer Stränge, die sich visuell, aber auch textlich um das Studio winden.

Lee Scratch Perry (1936 – 2021) was born in a remote Jamaican village in 1936 and moved to Kingston in 1961 to pursue a career in music after a divine voice directed him there. After founding the infamous Black Ark Studio he produced some of Bob Marley’s most renowned songs and became one of the pioneering forces in the development of dub and reggae music. The studio was burned down a few years later, and Perry led a nomadic life before settling between the Swiss countryside. Perry has worked with artists including Bob Marley and the Wailers, Junior Murvin, the Beastie Boys, and The Clash, among many others, and was awarded a Grammy for Best Reggae Album in 2003. By the end of the Seventies Perry started painting occult symbols and dub-collages around his studio, which gradually developed into a multidisciplinary Gesamtkunstwerk practice. Often imbued with spirituality, Perry’s visual output had since taken the form of multi-layered clusters that continually shift and change; creating an ever-expanding network of paradisal animals, cartoon figures and saints using paint, mirrors, rocks, photographs, video and computer-transmitted word-association poems – in a ceaseless quest to venerate the Almighty.

Ishion Hutchinson is a Jamaican poet and essayist.

Kodwo Eshun is a British-Ghanaian writer, theorist and filmmaker.

Veerle Poupeye is a Belgian-Jamaican art historian, curator and critic specialized in Caribbean art and visual culture. She lives in Kingston, Jamaica, and currently works as an independent curator, researcher, writer and cultural consultant.

Lee Scratch Perry (1936 – 2021) was born in a remote Jamaican village in 1936 and moved to Kingston in 1961 to pursue a career in music after a divine voice directed him there. After founding the infamous Black Ark Studio he produced some of Bob Marley’s most renowned songs and became one of the pioneering forces in the development of dub and reggae music. The studio was burned down a few years later, and Perry led a nomadic life before settling between the Swiss countryside. Perry has worked with artists including Bob Marley and the Wailers, Junior Murvin, the Beastie Boys, and The Clash, among many others, and was awarded a Grammy for Best Reggae Album in 2003. By the end of the Seventies Perry started painting occult symbols and dub-collages around his studio, which gradually developed into a multidisciplinary Gesamtkunstwerk practice. Often imbued with spirituality, Perry’s visual output had since taken the form of multi-layered clusters that continually shift and change; creating an ever-expanding network of paradisal animals, cartoon figures and saints using paint, mirrors, rocks, photographs, video and computer-transmitted word-association poems – in a ceaseless quest to venerate the Almighty.

The Visual Estate of Lee Scratch Perry is committed to the preservation and exhibition of the visual oeuvre of Lee Scratch Perry (1936–2021), in its material and non-material form. It aims to make Perry’s artistic legacy accessible to scientific reappraisal as well as to the general public and fosters sustained collaborations with international institutions, researchers, galleries, and other key players in the broader art field. The Visual Estate of Lee Scratch Perry is run as a non-profit association based in Switzerland. It is the main contact point and the sole representative of Lee Scratch Perry for all projects relating to his artistic legacy.