A Jab Jab Awakening Towards A New Essex

Chapter two of the three-part film: Othered in a region that has been historically Othered, 2022

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4K digital video, stereo sound

5:38 minutes (2:01 minutes excerpt)

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Edition of 3 and 1 AP

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Filmed in Dedham Vale, Essex

 

Chapter two departs from Old Knobbley to Dedham Vale—also known as Constable Country—where John Constable produced his canonical landscapes, extending the work across temporal and geographic registers. It centres on Jab Jab, a carnival masquerade tradition from Grenada, in which bodies coated in shiny black pigment move with trance-like intensity. Emerging from the post-emancipation era, Jab represents resistance, freedom, and Black liberation. Performers invoke a visual language of inversion and refusal, mobilising carnivalesque forms to satirise the colonial enslaver and restage scenes of enslavement on their own terms. The chapter serves both as an offering to Essex and as a critical pivot, orienting the viewer toward the radical horizon articulated in chapter three.

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Explore the accompanying audio here.

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Commissioned by Focal Point Gallery as part of the solo exhibition titled Othered in a region that has been historically Othered, 2022. Funded by Arts Council England, Focal Point Gallery and Southend-on-Sea City Council. With support from Art Exchange at the University of Essex.

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Chapter two credits:

Conceived, written and produced by Elsa James. Performance: Elsa James; Filmed, directed and edited: Andy Delaney; Colourist: Adrian Seery; Sound composer and designer: Trevor Mathison; Field Recordist and Camera Assistant: Graham Tobias; Drone Operator: Struan Wallace; Titles: Rich With; Production Assistance: Sue Withers. Make-up: Storm Thompson; Drums: Ken Lawrence; Conch Shell: Niles Hailstones; Grenada and Jab Jab Consultants: Lisa Williams and Dr John Angus Martin. All film stills: Andy Delaney.

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Screening history:

2023 - G.A.S. Foundation, Lagos, Nigeria

2023 - Birkbeck Cinema (BIMI), London 

2022 - Focal Point Gallery, Southend, Essex, UK

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