Pay Dirt, 2025 was commissioned by the Remai Modern for the exhibition Land. Sea. Sugar. Salt.: Terrestrial and Aquatic Contemplations of the Caribbean, including artists Carolina Caycedo, Andrea Chung, Giana De Dier, Braxton Garneau, Deborah Jack, Las Nietas de Nonó, Hew Locke, and Kara Springer.

While we speak of “the Caribbean” as a single region, it is, in fact, a complex and varied place defined by intricate intersections of histories and cultures that exist across an intricately delineated geography. The region encompasses over 700 islands, as well as portions of mainland countries such as Colombia, Venezuela, Belize, Nicaragua, and Guyana, sharing Indigenous histories, colonialism, African diaspora, and ongoing struggles for sovereignty and environmental justice.

Many people know the region only through tourism, a lens that can provide an understanding that is little more than superficial. Land. Sea. Sugar. Salt. aims to create a space of reflection and elucidation by giving primacy to the voices of eight artists who think deeply about the Caribbean and have familial and lived ties to the region. Each of the works speaks to an intimate engagement with the land, sharing a way of knowing it through physical experience and embodied knowledge.

Caribbean communities resist, adapt, and create—sustaining powerful traditions of solidarity, cultural expression, and environmental care in the wake of the pressures of colonial legacies, social and economic inequity, and environmental incursions and climate change.

Curatorial team

Land. Sea. Sugar. Salt.: Terrestrial and Aquatic Contemplations of the Caribbean is curated by Michelle Jacques, Head of Exhibitions & Collections/Chief Curator, and Sally Frater, Senior Curator/Curatorial Manager.