Ceci n’est Pas un Investissement (This is not an Investment)
Created in response to the damage wreaked by Hurricane Ivan in 2004, ‘Ceci n’est pas un investissement’ (‘This is not an investment’) narrates the destruction of the artist’s home and expresses post-Ivan economic concerns as referenced by the stock exchange and financial newspaper cuttings. The title plays on René Magritte’s famous Surrealist painting Ceci n’est pas une pipe (1929) and questions our notions of certainty, authenticity, and reality.
About the Artist
Pippa Ridley
b. 1980
Pippa Ridley is one of Cayman’s leading painters. She was born in Grand Cayman and is currently based in London. She studied Fine Art at the Slade School, UCL, and at the Prince’s Drawing School (now the Royal Drawing School). Ridley’s works usually take the form of large mixed media surfaces that illustrate tropical environments and explore dark narratives of social and cultural alienation. In 2013 she had a solo show at Thomas Williams Gallery, London, and was included in the exhibitions Master Drawings: Works on Paper from the 16th Century to the Present Day and Colour/Figure: Work from 1960 to the Present Day. Ridley was one of four Caymanian artists to be included in the recently released A-Z of Caribbean Art (Robert & Christopher Publishers: 2019), a landmark survey of contemporary art from the Caribbean region and its diaspora. Her work has featured at NGCI in the exhibitions All Access (2015), tIDal Shift: Explorations of Identity in Contemporary Caymanian Art (2015), Speak to Me (2016), Cross Currents – 1st Cayman Islands Biennial (2019), and Tropical Visions (2019).
