Wednesday, February 18, 2015

The Patch of Bush- The Repositioning of art and design in our new modernity-The Tacarigua Sculptural Playspace Project in the redefining of the next level of intercourse.






THE PATCH OF BUSH.

The repositioning of art and
design in our new modernity.
The Tacarigua Sculptural Play-Space Project in the
redefining of the next level of intercourse.

TACARIGUA SCULPTURAL PLAYSPACE PROJECT
Video run through.
I see this  project as opening up the patch of bush to interdisciplinary conversations.
 


 “Dis Patch of Bush Culture” he tells me, in wide eyes, words and gestures, in a frustration that I’m much familiar with. A frustration born out of doing, with very little understanding from our investors; when this support is given, it comes via a condescending manner, a tongue in cheek, a scowl of disbelieving in. Meh bredren was in vexing mood, he tell meh, we stood there in the hall way of pan and shared both our experiences of building things.

It is here we sit in our own patch of bush, pushing our own set of rules in development, which underscores the elemental position of art, a tool of enlightenment, sharing, storytelling, traditional, revolutionary, innovation. Where ever you sit within the totem of art or design; there is one thing in common...we all wish to convey a feeling of well being in our being by placing a subjective part of us, into an objective self. We do this from our patch of bush, we grow the grass tall, sitting very comfortably in the knowledge of our doing.  

So, me and meh bredren, we pound up we mouth, make noise from we patch. Artist, artist doing ting, always doing ting, we toil, make exhibition, get gallery representation, go to art biennials, write in paper, get we picture taken, and end up in big magazine, rub shoulder in high society, lime in Beach Party, UWI. We is facebook king and queen, instagram, and twitter, we is social, we!, we is brand self. We have followers, give talk in TEDX. We is do all dis from we patch of bush, we patch of bush real sweet, why yuh want to F*&K dis up, ah mean we Eatin Ah Food, I eating,

“You don’t have to tell artist how to make work”

“You shouldn’t have to tell artists how to make wok” 

“Why you have to tell artist how to make work”

People say this all the time, Art for Art Sake.... My Society tells me that Art for Art Sake, is a useless misnomer of Western Art Hegemony, who have constructed their society in their imagination, we haven’t, so we can’t afford throwing those words around, quite so easily.

 There are a whole host of organizations that represent artists, art makers, creative’s

ü  The Art Society of Trinidad and Tobago
Corner Jamaica Blvd. and St. Vincent Avenue
Federation Park-Port of Spain-Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.

http://www.artsocietytt.org/?url=www.search.co.tt
Mailing:
The Art Society of Trinidad and Tobago,
P.O. Box 542,
Port of Spain,
Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.
Tel: (868 ) 622-9827
the centre depends on volunteers to man it
if there is no answer at this phone,
please call Helen Rivers at
(868) 623 5461 X 228

ü  Best Village Unit -627-0471,627-2001-http://www.community.gov.tt/home/node/415

ü  Circle of Poets of Trinidad & Tobago -Meeting times: 1st and 3rd Wednesday of each month
at City Hall, Port of Spain. Time: 5:30pm - 7:30pm
Phone: 355-1205, 780-8618
Email: circleofpoetstt@gmail.com
Website: http://www.circleofpoetstt.org
Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/circleofpoetstt/

ü  The Brown Cotton Theatre Ensemble
http://www.browncottonoutreach.org
#13 Ana St. Woodbrook
For more information call 1 (868) 681-9985


ü  Metamorphosis Dance Comapny
http://metamorphosisdance.com/?url=www.search.co.tt
Contact information:
Address: 2A Dere Street
Port of Spain
Republic of Trinidad & Tobago
The Caribbean
Phone/Fax: 868-625-3225
E-mail:
info@metamorphosisdance.com

ü  National Drama Association of Trinidad & Tobago
http://www.ndatt.org/?url=www.search.co.tt
http://www.drama.org.tt/?url=www.search.co.tt
ndatt@drama.org.tt
National Drama Association of Trinidad and Tobago
#44Dundonald St. POS 1 (868) 681-9985
1 (868) 622-6344

ü  "The Trinidad and Tobago Copyright Collection Organisation (TTCO)"
35 Methuen Street,
Woodbrook.
Tel# 6241024
Email: info@ttc-co.com
ttcocopyright@gmail.com
Website:
www.ttc-co.com

ü  The National Chutney Foundation of Trinidad and Tobago (NCFTT)(Act 6 of 2000)
Suite 10-Cruise ship Complex
Dock Road, POS.
Email:
chutneyfoundation@yahoo.com

ü  National Cultural Promotions of Trinidad and Tobago (NCP)
4 Emperor Valley Zoo Road, Queens Park East
Port of Spain
Tel# 6282174
Email:
ncp2000@hotmail.com

ü  Tassa Association of Trinidad and Tobago (TATT)
Cruise Ship Complex
Dock Road, POS
Email: tassa_association@yahoo.com
Tel# 7421044

ü  Carnival Cultural Judges Association of Trinidad and Tobago (CJATT)
Post Office Box 4361
St Anns Post Office
St Anns.
Email; judgesassociation@yahoo.com
Tel# 1-868-7884668

ü  101 Artgallery
At the ASTT Building
Coner Jamaica Boulevard and St Vincent Avenue
Federation Park
Port of Spain
Trinidad and Tobago, W.I.
Tel.: (868) 628 4081
E-Mail: 101arts@tstt.net.tt
Website:
http://101artgallery.com/?url=www.search.co.tt

ü  Professional and Amateur Dance Association of Trinidad and Tobago
5 laday Paul Drive
Diego Martin-868-6078

ü  The Artist Coalition of Trinidad and Tobago (ACTT)
rubadiri@yahoo.com-5 Gulf View Drive
La Horquette Extension Road
Glencoe
1-868-797-0949
The interim board of ACTT is:
Rubadiri Victor President 797-0949
Sheldon Manoo Vice President 687-5576
Fabien Alphonso Secretary 707-0400
Shawn Randoo Assistant Secretary
Stuart Fortune Treasurer 729-8909

ü  The Trinidad and Tobago Institute of Architects


 Trinidad and Tobago Society of Planners  - http://ttplanners.org/
All ah 15 ah dem, is meh fren and dem, and still we still jock up and F&*K UP! Still we fighting little piece ah food, a little piece here, a little piece there.

 The mud Band, Mother's Earth-
is an example of communalism, social net work of doing and getting, not for profit, but the shear joy of doing

Ah artist paint over a wall of other artist work and say.

“Walls made for painting!”

Proud he was, getting to paint his work over other artist work, to eat ah food, tings sweet. Social justice in this country hard to find, social thinkers and social practitioners, even harder. Post Dana Seethahal.... justice for dat mural! or dat! mural at the Waterfront, Parliament Building, or the Oval Wall Project, the Central Bank. Social justice for art is social justice for all, as social justice is critical thinking. Social Justice comes is a voice, this voice is absent; we must reintroduce the voice through critically thinking symposiums, conferences, publications, film, videos, and projects, lots of projects. I have heard from artists that we talk too much, while it is we talk too little of meanings. We talk too much to ourselves; we need to talk to our society, our community, go to the Brian Lara Promenade, turn the speakers outwards.

Unification to Justification.

Non of we; can expect justification without unification of purpose, empathy of the other and within the group. The group is dead; as I spend time in the studio working there must be some other way to find community.

This unification will happen when we can collaborated on a broad level of interdisciplinary methods, working with policy makers, business, state and community implementing well thought out critically challenging developmental projects, with policy development programmes, where we can present how art and design can challenge in paradigms of centring programmes in communities where they will have long lasting implications.
Art, have the possibilities of opening the soul to learning, communication, change.
Design- have the possibility of presenting policy, process, maintenance in a light of understanding aesthetics and beauty, I understand purpose of care; as so can we.

Can all these 15 or so many other groups ever find unified voice, meanings, in developing in a Sou-Sou manner to development of projects that will enlighten and ennoble our space, walk out of the patch of bush and listen to the psychologist, the sociologist, International Relations, Cultural Studies, Historians, Political Science, Science, Engineering, Architects, Theorists, Philosophers, planners. Get in there and create social art, social design, which have the ability to make some of most impactful of work, as the artist and  the technical and academically minded, will have to deal with a new set of other noise, which will created friction, deconstruct assumption, disturb order, re-invent aesthetics that will have a powerful constructive pull to a new consumption.

NEOLIBERAL CAPITALIST
ideals of art making isn’t pushing or assisting anyone as I’m observing in my community, the unease in all too apparent.

This is a call for a meeting of minds to really provoke several projects that will really look at us from a political, social and aesthetic animal, the architect, the planner; the engineer, bureaucrat and technocrat can’t be the driving force of the new development mantra of new social engineering towards innovation, as our society tries to balance, rethink our revenue streams.   

the draft manifesto of the John Reed Clubs, named for poet and founding member of the American Communist Party John Reed, issued a call for artists to “abandon decisively the treacherous illusion that art … can remain remote from historical conflicts.” The clubs, which were founded in 1929, strove to effect change through writing, art, and organizing. Their membership thought of activist writing, painting, and drawing not as the ineffable stuff of Homeric inspiration but rather as the product of honest labor. Activist artists regarded themselves, writes John Paul Murphy in the informative Grey Gazette that accompanies the exhibition, as “culture workers.” 
http://hyperallergic.com/174971/picturing-a-communist-revolution-in-the-us/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Painting+as+Protest+on+Mexicos+Walls&utm_content=Painting+as+Protest+on+Mexicos+Walls+CID_3df6cd7633490c7f6788913c85a6cd22&utm_source=HyperallergicNewsletter&utm_term=Picturing%20a%20Communist%20Revolution%20in%20the%20US 

The Puzzle Chair- Here was an attempt at looking at the "OFFNESS" of our primitivism, how materials meet in an interesting non-alignment of resilience and dexterity of naivety, doing. The DYI movement was here, in Datsun Vill, Bangladesh, Sea Lots, the Hill of Laventille.  


 
“In recent years, many international designers have found
common  ground at what might be called the “design level zero”. Despite being of different nationalities (Italian, Dutch, Japanese, Icelandic, Finnish etc.), they share a desire to take design back to the beginning, evaluating its aims and means.”
http://www.domusweb.it/en/design/2015/02/10/contemporary_primitives.html?wtk=cpm.newsletter.dom.week.en.2015_02_12&Idtrack=5352643e8987f5498e16454b2ee18b50

Brynjar Sigurðarson, The Silent Village collection, Galerie Kreo- DOMUS- Contemporary Primitives-
Domitilla Dardi
 
 
 
As the above photo, we have a primitivism, we have not really bought into. It is an interesting exploratory exercise.
 
 
 
Social Justice Aesthetics, Restorative Aesthetics, as to the “Cultural Workers” of the above imaginations, means the development of structural aesthetics which will engulf form, asking, looking closely at human form, our primitivism, looking for “common ground”. Where “Common Ground” is will find Restorative Aesthetics.

 
The Blue Shed, Heights of Aripo. The space is littered with structural influences, we should have the confidence in repeating, with the refinery of art and design criticality.