At Electric Literature, Monica Byrne discusses the ongoing art revolution in Belize, and how artists create works that represent a diverse and beautiful country dealing with the trauma of postcolonialism:
If an artist isn’t interested in protest per se, how does one articulate a visual language of pleasure that is truly their own, and not that of the colonizers? Must paintings of Belizean natural wonders serve the tourist gaze, or can they serve their own creators? As Usher explains, “Colonization doesn’t give you an identity. We were English subjects, but not English people. So you constantly have to find out who you are.”
