THE URBAN HEART BEAT PROJECT- March 26-29th 2012

THE URBAN HEARTBEAT PROJECT

COMMUNITY ART, THE PERIPHERY, POWER AND THE REMEANING OF A JAMMETTE EXPRESSION.

URBAN ART – Lies within our communities as signifiers to certain masculine bravado, which originates from “Block Culture”, i.e. the congregation of men in communities in certain locations or spaces. In my own community, a middle class community, it was under the Samaan tree, at the back of “The Old Man house” opposite Mr. Mohammed’s house. The next space was the football court where the young men would gather to display their physical prowess in football, basketball and cricket.

A HISTORY OF BRAVADO - But that wasn’t all, there was a bravado leading to an ownership of space, marking it through a physical culture of ownership claimed as a result of one’s history and existence in the space - “Boy I was living here when dey was no houses across dey”- would be a bravado shout out; not necessarily with text or iconography but through a physical form, the language used to others who knew this language, meant that you belonged.  This came from a familiarity with father, girlfriend, mother, brother, sister (How sweet your sister is, meant something) child days, this social network of people in a space was what formed the language. I was a late comer to the block (I started liming in the block after I left high school) and was allowed position due to my address and de fact that the ‘fellas’ knew me growing up. My father being who he was; made me who I was in my community. All of this lead to how the space was guarded. If you wanted to know who passed through just ask one of the fellas who would be constantly present, ALL DAY! That would be Rab, a fella who found work around the community. Rab was a constant presence to the horror of the propriety of the middle-classness of the community. The block was an alternative aesthetic order where creativity was dealt with through conversation and deliberation, an alternative to the conservative values of the humdrum of the house. It was intergenerational, educated, progressive and for all intention democratic. The house was conservative, patriarchal and totalitarian.

A STORY. I remember a moment when a police car swooped down on the block and asked where de man who selling de marijuana? Tell him to stop! We don’t mind allyuh smoking, but selling, NAH!  Allyuh block real cool, allyuh doh cause no problems what dat man doing will bring problem on yuh; bringing in ah set of strangers in yuh community. The offending young man was immediately spoken to; ah mean he didn’t stop selling, but walked out to the Main Road to ply his stuff, he was out of the community.

ALL THE ABOVE
photos tells a story of people expressing
certain feeling that emanate out of their conversation with
their community.

This idea of the vanguard – a piece of defence of the community, communalism, socialism and democracy was a strong component. This surrounded the Tringrove football side that was really well organized and run by the older fellas in the community. There was a party, football league matches in the local football league. Sport at that level; be it sketchy or wayward had a certain seriousness to the community and by extension the block.

WALL PROTEST, Ah pardner of mine had an issue on the basketball team, which lead to him taking protest action by burning his team’s uniform. That created a scandal of admiration from the younger guys that he stood up to “them” and derision from his peers on the team. This idea of protest and bravado is one of the main impetuses for Urban Art in communities.

The scratch of a feeling.

WALL JUSTICE - during one particular election year a friend had an issue with someone in the area and wrote up on the wall text although political in nature was actually directed to that one person; you had to understand the story in a personal way to get the full justice of the text.

WALL MARKING OFF SPACE.
"WE GAP"

THE WALL became a way to convey personal angst in a way that would get the attention of all parties involved. In one stroke of a brush meh paddner got his personal feelings expressed through the concrete canvass.

Is it the lack of art training that has kept art in communities at a certain level. At the same time, one could argue that community art will always be at this level as that is what it is: an outsider art, at the periphery belonging to the jammette culture.
The other way to look at it, community art is a reflection of the poor state of our education system in the development of an aesthetics culture or well rounded and grounded individual in Trinidad and Tobago.

In recent years there has been the involvement of academically trained artists in ‘urban art.’ They use a vocabulary that is highly westernized and driven by values that may or may not have anything to do with the communalism of community art. This is the Urban Art that we speak of today. It is an art intervention process within spaces by people who do not have an understanding of the history or politics of that specific space, this creates the discord.

 THE DISCORD The lack of historical understanding of text or iconography within our social spaces has lead this new emergence or an urban art -  unable to really support the challenge for a new spatial politics. What would result would be the assimilation of a political community-based social activity into a mainstream activity. They will go into communities to do urban art projects but will this be a true representation of communal art.

THE DEMOCRACY.  This is what I have done in my contribution to the Urban Heart Beat Project. In one way we HAVE presented a new but still peripheral aesthetic that has been growing.  It is being pushed by a new generation of artists who challenge the status quo on a state wall in a very polite pathway in our capital city.

Luis Vasquez La Roche and Alicia Milne/

Pinky & Emigrante

In this kind of work democracy is held as a high value. Nine young people made a mark for the first time with two and half days of work which was presented in a professional manner, handled in a professional manner and executed in a professional manner? The experience was a comfortable, well organized example of the democracy of art in a space that has been debating the issue of Urban Art for 50 years and has not yet got it right.

THE DEMOCRATIZATION OF ART

" The conservative, ignorant and arrogant nature of state, the academy, private institutions, community and business towards the natural evolution of aesthetics within spaces have allowed for the unintentional and intentional oppression of artists ideas and art forms, through the avoidance and lack of support from community. This has created an angst within art, the art world pits one politic over the other. Creating at the end of the day badly operated artists lead projects, poorly managed state cultural institutions and private funding being wasted. These things only happen when there is shutting down of information and art forms being shut out of institutions by curators, managers and politicians. The democracy of art challenges this and allows an open environment of styles that speaks of a volume of forms leading to acceptance or even better, an understanding that you have a right to be there. Even if that style doesn't convene with your intellectual understanding of that form."

The wall.

Dean Arlen.

Brianna McCarthy

Richard Taylor

Kriston Banfield

Marie-Elena Joseph
&
Jennifer Perez Rojas
(Boy with Bird Cage,
my title)

Danielle Boodoo-Fortune

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Raquel Vasquez La Roche


this New Urban Art Movement here is young, gender neutral, inspiring, talented and peripheral to the society. It is middle class and academy trained. There is a gap that needs to be put in place that will allow more syncretization within our urban space and that is history, anthropology and the socio-political understanding of the local space.




THE URBAN HEART BEAT PROJECT.

The Urban Heart Beat Project initiated was a project in planning, putting place the right ingresients and getting results.

 food + water + paint = ART

there is something that we can learn.

WHAT

When projects are initiated plan it out.

GIVE CHANCES

YOU WILL GET RESULTS.

All the artists had a template, translations where
spot on. Although I edited my work somewhat, I felt that the other artists executed their work from concept to wall. That speaks of a maturity of the the artists, who for the first time in two and 1/2 days working on a larger surface they were able to controll and put in place a quality form.

URBAN ART = URBAN SOUNDS

URBAN SOUNDS = URBAN SPEAKERS