BY RICHARD JOHNSON—-
FOR a second year, there are no Jamaicans in the top 100 winners of the International Reggae Poster Competition (IRPC).
The results of the competition’s fourth staging were announced on the competition’s website last week.
Iranian Seyed Abbas Mirqeisari’s Prism of Nature took top honors while second place went to Oktay Barkin of Turkey with Lion. Round out the top tier was Reggae Music produced by Li Wei of China. The winners were selected from a panel of 23 judges.
“The top three winners were successful in securing the Award for Best-designed Reggae Posters 2015. This year, we exceeded the number of posters submitted in each of the previous years. We received 1,664 posters from 84 countries! And we are particularly pleased that submissions came from countries that were participating for the first time – Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Cameroon, Guatemala, Honduras, Moldova, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, United Arab Emirates, and Zimbabwe,” read a post on the competition’s website.“This extension of the contest’s reach is particularly impressive in the 4th year. It confirms the sustained global impact of the IRPC. On the platform of the contest, we will continue to spread our vision of a Reggae Hall of Fame Museum in Kingston, Jamaica. And we collectively affirm support for the campaign to heighten awareness of the distinctive legacy of the Alpha Boys’ School,” it continued.
The IRPC is organised by Jamaican-born, US-based visual artist Michael ‘Freestyle’ Thompson and his Greek partner, visual artist Maria Papaefstathiou.
In the contest’s first two years Jamaican artists fared reasonably well. In year one (2012), Taj Francis placed fifth, with the eventual winner being Alon Braier from Israel. In year two, Rohan Mitchell copped fourth position to Balazs Pakodi of the United Kingdom who took the top spot. In 2014 there were no Jamaican artists in the top 100 entries to the competition; the eventual winner was Andreas Wikstrom of Sweden.
IRPC is an initiative designed to celebrate positive international reggae culture. The contest highlights the globalisation of reggae and the resounding impact of its message. The umbrella term reggae, as used by the organisers, encompasses all the popular Jamaican musical genres: Ska, Rocksteady, Roots Reggae, Dub, Dancehall and the Sound System. The primary reason for organising the poster contest is to construct an international platform to showcase a far-reaching vision: the erection of a world-class Reggae Hall of Fame museum and performance centre in Kingston.
Each year a number of the winning entries are taken on an exhibition tour. The first exhibition for 2016 will take place in Nicosia, Cyprus. This exhibition will showcase 80 posters from the 2015 collection on February 26 on the ground floor of the Politis newspaper building.
You must log in to post a comment.