Defining “Sagren”
The technical definition of the Creole term, Sagren, describes the deep sadness caused by a forced expulsion from one’s birthplace. It creates an unattainable urge that grows hungrier over time. During the summers of my middle school years, I would visit my homeland, China, with my family. When the economy crashed in the U.S, we couldn’t afford the plane tickets anymore. As the years passed, the melancholic nostalgia deepens.
Siatous’ artwork all had his definition of Sagren intertwined into them. I felt was particularly close to the idea of Sagren. The element that stood out to me were the people. There’s a sense of the natural coexistence of people and nature, and that this community really existed. It’s Siatous’ evidence of the people that actually inhabited the Chago Islands. For Siatous, this is like his way of remembering/immortalizing a specific scene so that he can revisit it in his memories.
The exhibition presents a collection of work that not only acts as art, but also as personal, historical, and political documents. Siatous’ use of a vibrant color palette creates cohesion and he also inserts in own style into his paintings. It’s also considered art because he has the power to insert whatever fiction and nonfiction into them. He was not physically present to document these events. It’s considered a personal documentation because the artist himself felt the Sagren that compelled him to document his own heritage from his memories and experiences. It also acts as historical documents because each piece is not just a memory that Siatous remembers. They depict the culture and life of the people of the Chago Islands, like the fishing industry that once existed and the tools (wove baskets) they used. By creating these paintings, Siatous is in political defiance of the UK government’s deliberate elimination of actual history. In their own way, these paintings are just as valid as any written documents of the existence of a permanent population on the Chago Islands.
Ultimately, Siatous is “performing identity” throughout his work by using his own memories to document the culture of the Chago Islands. He adds a sense of falseness from his paintings because his memories are 50 to 60 years old, and there are obvious gaps that can’t be filled with real facts. Simultaneously, some things can be misrepresented in the process of adding false memories to fill in the gaps. By putting up exhibitions, like this one, it helps preserve an almost overlooked history and create an ongoing dialogue between the audience and the artist.
