At a towering six feet five inches, the curly-haired architect of the four-piece mixed media installation glazed in ebony beams quietly but with an assured dose of patrilineal pride. Silent Stars, which held its opening reception on Tuesday, May 12 at Devon House and ran for a mere six days, serves as the handcrafted fruits of yet another successful stint of Alexis Peskine’s multidisciplinary and interactive AcuPainting art workshop series. The series, after making significant strides in France, Brazil, the States, and the African continent, took up a four-month residency at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts back in January. Nurtured and led by the 35-year old visual artist, photographer and graphic designer, who splits his time between Salvador, Bahia in Brazil and his native Paris, France — a batch of around 20 students at the Rock’s premier art school were exposed to Peskine’s artisanal techniques, artistic signatures, and expansive worldview across the areas of painting, sculpture, fashion, graphic design, and photography. Fashioned from wood, enamel paint, and gold-leafed nails, and featuring Edna Manley pupils as subjects, the collaborative work is inspired by constellations and astronomy — after all, the collection sports names such as Andromeda and Nebula — and celebrates freedom, global travel and identity, as well as explores the rediscovery of self through world cultures and universal themes via the black body. Pacing the antique parquetry underfoot, inside the upper apartments of the iconic manse, where Silent Stars was mounted in partnership with AYA Consultancy & Training Solutions, SO contributor Curt Cawley picks the brain of the nomadic Peskine…

Is this your first visit to the island?

Yes, it is; it’s my first visit to the Caribbean.

What pushed you to pursue travel to our shores?

In the Caribbean, the place that appealed the most to me was Jamaica. I’m interested in blackness in a global sense, and wherever I go I’m curious to see how that functions. The island was one of those locales where I wanted to witness that dynamic at play. The culture is also renowned for its intrinsic creativity, which I wanted to experience.

What would be the must-dos on a Rock tour tailored by you?

As someone who is interested in art, I would say visit the galleries and museums such as New Local Space, and the National Gallery of Jamaica and meet with the local artists. Pop into the interesting bars and club/party spaces, avoiding the more touristy establishments among that lot. Explore the island and the mountains, organically — for more than a week (laughs) — with friends who can show you their secret, off-the-beaten-track havens.

What literary titles are currently occupying your nightstand?

Toni Morrison’s Jazz, which I recently finished. Now, I’m reading her work, The Bluest Eye.

What is the current dialogue you’re having about race and identity within your work?

My earlier work spoke about local issues with regard to growing up in France, the racism, and the police violence. Now, my work focuses on being empowered and being in control. It also incorporates different cultures and subtle poeticism. I still reference the social injustices that I’ve seen but I strive to approach it in a way that we are presented as empowered and free.

How does your perpetual state of travel influence the way you see certain materials or make you attracted to certain materials?

It really depends on where you’re at. Being here in Jamaica, nature is something that, I guess, strikes most people. That pushed me to use the materials I did for this exhibition here at Devon House. When I came here to the island, my mind became preoccupied with history and that influenced the raw, old-look finish of the pieces. And then, sometimes, you might lack a certain material in a certain place, and you have to find a substitute.

How did your signature use of construction nails come about?

Years ago, when I walked into my studio for the first time as a master’s student at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, the only thing in there was a wooden table that I subsequently decided to use as a canvas due to my own budgetary constraints. I started thinking about a range of complementary materials that could be used. I came up with nails because my work dealt with the black experience, and the idea of nails forming an image together in art also looks interesting to the eye.

How do nails connect with the African diaspora?

Nails represent transcendence. They can be used to hurt, yet they can also be used to build and rebuild. A nail is also a material that is usually concealed, especially when used in construction, which I think speaks to the huge contributions of enslaved Africans and their descendants to the success of the Americas that predominantly goes unrecognised.

You’ve conducted a just-capped, months-long AcuPainting Workshop at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts… what came out of this artistic exchange?

Silent Stars (laughs). What was really fulfilling were the testimonials shared by the students about what they’d learned from the project. Every element used to create the aesthetic of the exhibition came so naturally due to chemistry between myself and the Edna Manley College students, our relationship with the work, and the inspiring natural and historical built environment of Jamaica.

Silent Stars is the collective exhibition you just alluded to, what does it abstractly represent?

Devon House was built by a man who was born into slavery and became a millionaire. In terms of the symbolism, the journey is phenomenal. This echoes in the empowerment theme visible in this exhibition and my broader work. I want to showcase the ideas of excellence, poetry, beauty, freedom through art. Silent Stars suggests a departure from works explicitly surrounding slavery. The name of the exhibition came from a eulogy that the American abolitionist and statesman Frederick Douglass wrote commemorating the Civil War abolitionist and humanitarian Harriet Tubman. The writing contrasts his formal daylight contributions to the fight against slavery, and Tubman’s ‘underground’ nighttime work in the environment of the ‘midnight sky’ and the ‘silent stars’. I just thought it was so beautiful and poetic and it touched on the idea of going from a state of slavery to freedom; going from the struggle to better days.

What does urban youth culture’s involvement bring to the proverbial conversation of modern-day activism?

Modern-day activism is only relevant if you’re talking about the present. Urban youth and their contemporaries are the present. Therefore, it’s crucial to know what they are saying. We already know what the previous generation said and did. Youth brings freshness to the process. They might even bring solutions!

As a Parisian, what significance does the ‘Je Suis Charlie’ slogan hold for you?

I did not appreciate those religiously insulting Charlie Hebdo cartoons, and I’m not Muslim. Of course, no one is for terrorism. Freedom of expression is an invaluable right – we have to have that. And no one should kill another person – but we have to understand that hate breeds hate. Terrorists and extremists cannot be used to derisively broad-brush an entire faith. Like I always say, if you punch someone or spit in someone’s face you will not start a conversation, you will get physical retaliation. Interestingly, in France 12 people died and African leaders flew to France to pay their respects, yet around the same week 2,000 civilians died in that Boko Haram massacre in Nigeria and no one in France publicly paid their respects or visited. I’m all for freedom of expression and liberty – which are part and parcel of living in a free country; and I’m against terrorism, but I can’t say I’m Charlie.

What does your drink order look like?

I love Batida de Gengibre when I’m in Brazil, where my mother is originally from. It’s a drink consisting of hot ginger, condensed milk and Brazilian rum, cachaça. Another Brazilian favourite – especially at the beach — is a Caipirinha, but with passion fruit. I’m also a big fan of cherry juice.

You’re an extensive globetrotter, where have you been that still preoccupies your imagination?

I love Senegal; I go there every year. It’s vibrant and cool. The people there speak eight different languages; there are different peoples and different climates in the one country.

Your receipts are typically riddled with what style purchases?

Art supplies and materials; eyeglasses; colognes; and airline tickets.

What is your life philosophy?

I believe in karma, and in the law of attraction. I also think that you have to travel, even if it’s your last cent. Something good always comes out of it, even if it’s in extremely harsh conditions. For instance, we struggled to make Silent Stars happen, but when you see the results here at Devon House, it doesn’t look like it; I hope so. Go and explore and things will come your way.

What’s next for Alexis Peskine?

I’m off to France on Friday (May 22) for a few days and then to Canada to attend Black Fashion Week Montréal. I designed the poster for the event using an Edna Manley student as model, and the fashion pieces of another student at the school. I have a show this summer in Paris, and there is a potential art residency in Atlanta, Georgia.