LETS TALK CATALYST&THE TACARIGUA SCULPTURAL PLAYSPACE PROJECT & OTHER

conceptual drawings for seating - connected to the Tacarigua Sculptural PlaySpace Project. this is sculpture, it is art...but what makes the work more meaningful, is the social process that must be invested in its making. This is ancestral, it is art genetics to be part of the living. 

LETS TALK CATALYST&THE TACARIGUA SCULPTURAL PLAYSPACE PROJECT&OTHERS
The other day at UWI, there was a Three Day Session on art and culture by stake holders from around the Caribbean, There was a write up on the session by Holly Bynoe. From the article there were some issues, which was highlighted

•  developing a Creative Tourism model
• consider the colonial structure of funding but don’t pressure or agitate bodies to think about how this keeps us within an exploitative structure, binding us to repeating systems and the monstrous challenge of being engaged in conversations and or projects that do not occur naturally and organically.
• With healthy ecologies being the buzzword,
•  highlighting the human element
• It  
• These include the development of a grant writing support system to build a cadre of writers in the Caribbean with a focus on procuring grants for cultural programmes, initiatives and projects, and making this system less opaque to the people who would benefit from these resources;

The below letter was sent to Annalee Davis, through Facebook, Sun 1 June, 2018

"read the article...it is always nice to see these efforts. I understand all that was mentioned....you mentioned there will be a deeper report coming out.....Allow me to share some thoughts, in going further art must understand what is necessary for its fulfillment in Trinidad and Tobago (I can speak very confidently about T&T art culture, from the art society to the private spaces, for this conversation I'll limit myself to Trinidad and Tobago), as in the Caribbean, just our size and limited resources, art must be willing to change it methodology. Many artists, like Hall, Laird, Ramesar, Rubadiri and dear I say Arlen...have challenged the paradigm of cultural making, through the economy of scale and activism....where at a policy level, we theoretically have on the fringes the making of an arts council....which can radically alter how art moves through the national circle....art connection to class! is as important to it being deconstructed, as is racism, to American cultural economy. I noticed there were noticeable absence of speakers, (understanding not everyone can be invited to the table), Studio-66, ACTT......I have been working with my collaborators, in placing art in that context of development, sustainability, value added, social justice, vernacular. In October, we hope to have the first talk, with PENNU, on developing a systematic, immersed, investigation in art's potential to creating that space. What will it take, from who? where? and how much? how long? the idea is to invest in a space/spaces, over a period of time...Also, the Tacarigua Sculptural PlaySpace Project, all place art in the development conversation, the diversification discourse, the planning conversation....rather than the hobbyist backdrop, art has been relegated to for all these years. Art adopting other principles of urban planning, (as one urban planner mentioned, that they have never considered art a part of their language, they're willing to), we need to define that formula that art has. Which can only happen through, practicing communities, through a social art methodology. That is without all the issues, that Molly mentioned in her article. I found this to be absent. As it is important, to what should be funded, do we fund art organizations that're already operating, in the module of art, for art sake, or art for artists sake, caught in what class and other depredations of post colonialism, or do we fund, what is necessarily needed; proper well focused activism, that seeks to challenge policy, economy...one example of this, how do we shift the economy of art, to one of subjective economy to one, where the art object can be seen as an asset, to insurance companies and bankers. There're interesting articles on how this was done....it takes another type of investment in activism...As a practicing artist, the shift will not come by more and more funding, until there is a willingness to understand the ecosystem of survival and the reality of survival, for the working poor artist. I have been able to get a Chair at the Tunapuna/Piarco Regional Corporation, in a public statement, declare, that they have embraced an artist (not a designer) to help them solve their development issues. A small step, but a step it is....if we can coalesce voices towards this happening through community, corporate, part politics and state, think how it'll challenge the artist economy! Then think how the education of artist will have to be changed, both a secondary and at tertiary, UWI, level...Thanks, for sharing, will keep you posted as projects happen, check the link...."


As a practicing artist, working in the urban and gallery system. As mentioned above, what is the future of art, the future of art sits in social transformative projects such as the

1. The Fondes Amandes Community Reforestation Project
2. Studio66 Art Support Community
3. Artists Coalition of Trinidad and Tobago - through the activism of Rubadiri Victor
4. Lord Street Theater - through Tony Hall
5. Banyan Studio which have some connection to Gayelle
6. The Tacarigua Sculptural PlaySpace Projct
7. Yao.Ramesar

All seven projects, have challenged economy and scale. They're rethinking how the aesthetic product can be made, through the social, the political, the economic, party politics, community . This bring up all sort of altering in the cultural fabric....it will first challenge 

1. Education - from Tex-Vox, to the Department of Creative and Festival Art, DCFA, UWI, the artist will have to be given the tools to walk and talk with urban planners. The new artist will have to be versed in anthropology and sociology, to navigate the social art, the social economy, that is being developed at this time
2. The New Value Economy - there is need to rethink, how work is moved through the space, in doing this we have to rethink value systems. At this moment we make work in a very subjective value. There has been no building of that understanding of art, from a community level, banking, insurance level. To develop this, we will have to create a sustained activism based in dialog with the nation, both state and private.
3. Community - we have to show people what art is, in driving my projects, I have been told
1. "that I have a hobby"
2. "I don't have a real job"
3. "Art does not belong in community"   

WHAT NEEDS TO BE FUNDED
When we understand these issues, we can then understand what needs to be funded, do we still need to fund what is already happening, and what is happening is happening as mentioned,

"becomes a place where we build walls up to keep people out and we reinforce elitist spaces and privilege. In these silos, we harbor an infestation of incestuous behavior and turn our backs on self-critique."

Art has become this, so we have to rethink, where funding should be applied, which should transform the space into sustained communities, with value added....these projects, must be steeped in the social, sharing economy

SOCIALIST ART WILL CHALLENGE ECONOMY AND TIME!

THE TACARIGUA SCULPTURAL PLAYSPACE PROJECT -Fence,Green Fence-Memory Fence - Is a fence just a fence– The art of memorializing memory into design

The Tacarigua Sculptural PlaySpace Project

FENCE,GREEN FENCE-MEMORY FENCE

Is a fence just a fence.

The art of memorializing memory into design

Even with good design, a fence will remain a fence,
with memory, a fence begins to build,
deconstruct old and modern notions of
"fencing in"

Fencing,

installing/erecting barriers is a symbol of structural political performance, it symbolizes a power dynamic, set in feudal relationships to land ownership, rights, access, privilege. The act of placing a fence, playing a fence, designing a fence; falls into one or more aspects of political performativity, establishing making political boundaries; keeping in, shutting out. As much as we may want to apply principles of social justice to the act. A fence is a fence.

“DON’T FENCE ME IN” – Cole Porter

We came to this “Fence” through three steps;

1.    Philosophy – there was an understanding, that as a safety measure, this fence must not only act as a boundary, but act, as a sculptural form, a work of art, which speaks to the people, through their history

2.    Community Consultation – some members of the community had concerns about the junction, as the playspace will buttress the junction, of the Priority Bus Route, PBR, and Orange Grove Road, where the western side of the PlaySpace will run, North-South. These two concerns were

a.    Pollution from cars and buses

b.    The possibility of accidents

In light of this, a green fence was conceptualized to deal with these concerns, in a sustainable way.

3.    Vernacular Design – the art of memorializing memory into design

a.    Through iconographic texturing, impaled onto the surface of sculptural forms,

b.    The fence must be seen as work of art, as a functional sculptural formula – this space must and should be able to be seen in the drawings of a child

c.    History – the space, the fence; always was to speak, in a very personal way to the heritage of the people of the Tacarigua

These three steps, will see the “evangelism of art” an experience which is acknowledged as one of art’s emotive reactions.

This evangelizing of the fence, brings a state act into the personal space of the body; through –

1.    Ritualism of the body, in relational to the fence, the communal space/allows for this to be nurtured….yet the “fence” have this possibility to bring the body in relational opposites to it, developing another kind of performativity, of spiritual awakening in

2.    The Spirit, the Intellect, the Mind – this other action, another type of relation, existential in nature. Almost immeasurable, yet profoundly important, in developing the familiar

3.    The Aesthetics – within aesthetics, lies the formula, the didactic nature of form, is as important for the two, too happen properly. Yet the nature of our cultural experience must and should highlight the importance of the politics of aesthetic, in achieving social justice.

There are three, views memory brings the body into reaction, action to the fence,
transforming and challenging aesthetics. There is
1-the moving body,
2-the contemplative,
3-the gathering 

It is in this moment we will radically alter the symbolic ideals of the fence as a provocateur of the state’s authoritarianism and capitalism consumption of communal space.

This is the nirvana of art

Memory allows the political body to engage a new relational.
This new relational evokes a new political body.
There are 4 modules, I have identified so far
1-personal
2-family/friends/community
3-walking
4-driving

Esoteric Values in design is implied as we search for meaning in aesthetics. The political act, in search of social justice, overrides esoterics, as Black Stalin’s – Wait Dorothy Wait

“As ah take up meh pen to wright the first verse, this is what I remember, oil money come and oil money go, an poor people remain on the pavement and the ghetto, so when Mr. divider start to divide the bread equally, yes ah going to finidh the whole dam calypso about Dorothy, how ah jam she, and she jam me and we roll back,

But once my people fighting for an equal share of the cake,

Wait Dorothy wait”

We must here a stake in the symbolism, as we sit in the privilege position, of class and position, we must seek on behalf of the commons; space an aesthetics equivalent to the political identity of the proletariat, that commonality of space.  Therefore, the fence in its essence, must hold the power of the chantwel, to become somewhat like, the Caribbean Wailing Wall.

THE TACARIGUA SCULPTURAL PLAYSPACE PROJECT&INTEGRATED FOOD SPACE In Redesigning Public Art, Rethinking Architecture.

THE TACARIGUA SCULPTURAL PLAYSPACE PROJECT&INTEGRATED FOOD SPACE 

In Redesigning Public Art, Rethinking Architecture.

THE ABOVE IS A CONCEPTUAL RENDERING OF THE INTEGRATION THAT IS HAPPENING

"Looking at Development through Art-Design...

As we go further and further into this conversation of development and heritage. We have forgotten how we can use art-design as a methodology to solve  issues

related to the management of space. Through social dialogue, we can map-out how in the future activities in the Savannah can be developed and maintained, even the contradictory demands on its usage. 

Many are not aware of the structural possibilities of art-design to transform community spaces, which have multiple uses. Developing a space that incorporates democratic values and environmental sustainability means yes, establishing boundaries, drawing the line and sticking to that line, both at the state level and most importantly at the community level.

Currently our spaces are not: 

1. democratically developed to enhance the wonderful properties of the green space. Our spaces are developed for adult physical activities (mainly masculine activities)  and have excluded 'other' users due to the oversight of our planners. These 'other' users include the elderly and children who simply want to play or sit and enjoy the green ambiance. Play is undervalued in Trinidad and Tobago, the child or teenager who wants to relax quietly under a tree and read, getting away from parents in a meditative environment has no space to do so. I was once fortunate to see the original plan by Architect, Colin Laird 1950-1960's design of the early Orange Grove Savannah.  It included a ring of trees, spaces for people to play and chill as well as for football and cricket.  The conversation around heritage, is therefore also a conversation about landscape design and management.
2. adhering to any philosophy in relation to the use of community space.  There is the responsibility of the Regional Corporation to support the interests of diverse groups of  burgesses, and there is the right of a community to protect what it sees as important, all knocking at each other.  

Then there is art-design and citizens and burgesses interested in the aesthetics, heritage and inclusiveness of the space, wanting an opportunity to present to citizens, the potential to respond to both sets of interests through evidence-based  possibilities in ways in which the community would be proud. The link below probably summarizes better than I do the ideas that I have been trying to present. 

https://www.planning.org/research/arts/briefingpapers/character.htm

The use of art-design in enhancing community aesthetics based on consultations and conversations with community members, provides an opportunity to develop communities along the lines of innovation, social justice and progressive social aesthetics. Unfortunately our one-dimensional education system has systematically undermined  the native creativity and artistry of our people, pushing it underground into criminal and anti-social behaviour. This is an opportunity to contribute to the Trinidad and Tobago that we all want and need."

The above, statement was made in an open Save the Savannah email, copied into the email was the Chair of the Regional Corporation, Councilors, Pennsylvania University colleagues, Planning people, Geographers. All in opening the dialog.

It was it this moment, things changed, for the Tacarigua Sculptural PlaySpace Project, as the project has been embraced as a methodology in resolving some of the issues.

THE TACARIGUA SCULPTURAL PLAYSPACE PROJECT

 have the opportunity in placing art 

into an architectural methodology, 

creating a sculptural planning methodology. 

THE TACARIGUA SCULPTURAL PLAYSPACE PROJECT

NEVER WANT TO BE SOLELY LOCATED IN PLAY. 

IT WANTED TO PLAY IN COMMUNITIES, 

ALLOWING COMMUNITIES TO BE PLAYFULLY AESTHETIC.

iN all their wonderful, beautiful, empowering aspectS of themselves.

THE TACARIGUA SCULPTURAL PLAYSPACE PROJECT

IS A METHODOLOGY STEEPED IN THE SOCIAL/THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL

THE TACARIGUA SCULPTURAL PLAYSPACE PROJECT

WANTED TO HIGHLIGHT @ THE CENTRE OF PLANNING THERE MUST BE AN AESTHETICS.

THIS AESTHETICS DOES NOT REALLY HAVE TO RELY OF ARCHITECTURE,

AS MUCH AS ARCHITECTURE SHOULD RELY ON IT.

 an aesthetics steeped in art - not art, as we speak of it; hanging on the wall, 

art as an anthropological meaning, 

seeking the internal meaning of the being, 

the heart of creation, 

the indigenous, 

primal thought, 

stripping modernism, 

to fulfill truth

PLACING IT WITHIN THE INFRASTRUCTURE OF THE LIVING

THE TACARIGUA SCULPTURAL PLAYSPACE PROJECT

has these potentialities to see art integrated into planning, acting as an agent, extensions of peoples imaginations, this leap comes with lots of embracing or having confidence in the artist's process.

this is where we sit, in bringing together the data, which can drive essence...this is the question, of the "buy in", I place THIS question to Prof. Lesley Lokko. With all the bright eyed dreams of radical innovation, most post-colonial communities suffer the doldrums of innovation, real social development, The kind that pulls community with it.....there is a reality of a political maleficent, weighing heavy on the shoulders of social creativity.

we must be willing to push the progressive conversation of this meaning, as it challenges all corners of our aesthetic understanding...

THAT IS THIS NEW ART!

A SHORT MEMORY OF FOOD AND SPACE- The Tacarigua Sculptural PlaySpace Project - in Integrating Food and Play. Creating a new spin in playing food.

A SHORT MEMORY OF FOOD AND SPACE.
The Tacarigua Sculptural PlaySpace Project - in Integrating Food and Play. Creating a new spin in playing food.

I remember food, I remember Mr. Lal, (who owned a small wooden shack/shop on the south, western edge of the northern football field, bounded by the Orange Grove Road and what is now the Priority Bus Route). We will stop there on our way to and from church, this was the routine, every Saturday, Mr. Lal, as I knew him, was the first vendor and as I came to learn, an illegal vendor, which the The Tunapuna/Piarco Regional Corporation had to settle with him to remove him.

As time went on, I grew; there became popular for foodies, and vendors alike, time will slow down, as we steeped out of maxis, to walk south into Trincity, mind you the original Trincity was designed by architect, Colin Laird. Time stood still as we will hang out with the coconut vendor, with a little rum being brought by all to consume with the cool nut, other bredrens will fall in. The Coconut Man, was there long time, then came others, not sure who was first or last, they just came, then there were options to go with the lime, 

• Fruit
• Doubles
• Cooked Food 

There was a varying degree of permanence, people seem to come, to go, I'm familiar with The Coconut Man! they have been there in my teens, man dem dey still!

AN ERA HAS GONE, ANOTHER HAS ARRIVED!
Now, that era has changed, through a social art-design methodology, we're in the process of evolving the space, the community in understanding how vending will happen in the Trincity, Tacarigua, Orange Grove Community. Through an act of collaboration, with the state, and long term collaboration, as an artists, I have learned many languages, 

1. the language of the architect
2. the language of the state
3. the language of community

 The language of the architect,
I have worked with Architect, Sean Leonard, in shaping this idea for multiple presentations, politicians, corporate and community, each having interesting challenges. But none more challenging than the artist! This collaboration has been a long one since the early 2000!

WORKING IDEAS, WOKING IDEAS, STAYING IN IDEAS
I have worked in collaboration throughout my career as a creative thinker, working with welders, designers, craft people, all varying degrees of negotiation...the challenge of the artist, working with multiple players in the game, is keeping the integrity of the project alive, keeping the essence of the project intact, it's integrity....

As an artist, working this route, also accept that ideas, 

1. evolve, 
2. morph, 
3. distill, 
4. contract, 
5. expand 

While understanding, as these things must happen, one thing that must be defended at all cost is the fundamental philosophical intention of the art-design project.....that one ingredient, which makes innovation happen in space. This is something, I have never really had to battle with Sean, there is that unique respect for the intention of the project, what we want to achieve, the willingness to see it achieved. 

There is debate on; how space can be 

1. operationalized, 
2. materiality; i.e. how do we use certain materials, plastics versus wood

The collaboration has opened up my understanding of the translation of ideas, while understanding the practicality of the construction industry and the craft person. 

In our group conversations, we have run afoul with that, misunderstanding, one opinion, stood their ground concerning pricing of items, for the playSpace, even when we're given assurances that this was normal practice in the industry. Understanding the many angles, to bringing something into spacial being from an architect's eye, has been my learning curve.

For Sean, I guess, he's learning as well, on collaborating with an artist's angst, let not forget my colleagues in the NGO, Dada&projects, who for real! learning the artist angst, this has been thrown on the table, most recently.

HOW TO DEAL WITH CREATIVES

RESPONSIBILITIES IN CARING FOR CREATIVE IDEAS

COPYRIGHTS, WHO OWN WHAT AND WHEN

HOW TO CARE

CONTRACTS

ROLES IN MOVING IDEAS

These sound simple, but it is one of the main! reason, we have not been able to tap into the cultural diversification of the country. As the state and further, our peoples, have no idea, in how to embrace, the creative.

This is what we will challenge as we move forward with the Tacarigua Sculptural PlaySpace Project. I hope I'll be able to work it out, come to some understanding, here through these journals.

But as we go along, I hope we can get a geographer to map the project, as it negotiate space and state.

Dean Arlen 

  

WORKING THE HAND - ART-DESIGNING TOWARDS A SOCIAL AESTHETIC PLANNING METHODOLOGY.

WORKING THE HAND - 
ART-DESIGNING TOWARDS A SOCIAL AESTHETIC PLANNING METHODOLOGY. 
The Tacarigua Sculptural PlaySpace Project, in Conjuring State Politics in Embracing Social Aesthetics
Journal - #0001
Thursday 19  April, 2018

PHASE-11

Dean Arlen-artist, Aaron Thomas-Councilor,
Emuel Dennis-Engineer, Sean Leonard-Architect

The Tacarigua Sculptural PlaySpace Project, has taken on a new phase in its development. I have learnt from moving things through this space, things drop in front of your pathway, they come from the side, top, ripping through the floor....it comes, it comes, it comes. The smile in it all is how I (we) have been able to deal with these conjuring. The Eddie Hart Savannah, aka Orange Grove Savannah, is a part of my experience, I have grown up watching sport happen there, I belong to that group of people who came to space to chill, I have always found that the Savannah was not about chilling, more about active play, organized male playing, i.e. football, cricket. 

Boom the Tacarigua Sculptural PlaySpace Project, evolved, through my experience as an artist growing in my education, finally coming to paper and pen, at Ontario College of Art and Design, through the installation program, I shaped the idea, of sculpture, being multi-functional, allowing people to play, engage in their energies.
On returning home, this was hard to sell, so I added "play" to "sculpture", "Playing Sculpture"....now, how that was read? was it recognized, cause people are focused on the play, and for some reason, do not understand this as a art (or even the transformational properties), even my colleagues, can't see the art in a project which seems more like a design project...
so, hey!
ART-DESIGN! OR ARTDESIGN
Which allows us to have a democratic conversation about aesthetics, where a hegemony has been created by designers and architects, in squeezing the visual arts out of the commons. When we have always been there. We never left (if we understand tribal art and culture)...this can happen in a later post.
So the 
The Tacarigua Sculptural PlaySpace Project 

As I have mentioned, allowed me to understand the nature of developing ideas in a space, ambivalent to ideas, ideas which don't come from withing the political main advancement, 
PARTY POLITICS.
Party Politics, have shaped how things move in this country, and I have had interesting responses from all parties, I have sat with
PNM
UNC
COP
MSJ 
I have sat with the regional corporations, commission of state lands, Town and country, corporate and community.

COMMUNITY LITERACY&CONVERSATIONAL INTELLIGENCE& showing love
Here, is the main core of things, do we understand how to embrace innovation, do we understand how to love, is another way to look at the question. I have never to this point; in negotiating this project, anyone ask, 
"HOW CAN WE HELP?"
Maybe, if it was said, it was said in such a low tone, I missed it. There is this political masculinity, which ascribes a certain amount of handle your stories.
Then they themselves, exclaim how things are hard, the systems is confusing, yet they're the architect or the gate keeper of that system.
CONSISTENCY, has some dividends, the other day, the corporation embraced the idea, 
for the first time in a long time

I felt included in development.as a an artist, as a citizen. 
Due to certain events in the community, removal of certain activity and placing that activity into the jurisdiction of the Tunapuna/Piarco Regional Corporation, TPRC. Which is The Eddie Hart Grounds, aka Orange Grove Savannah.
Me and my colleague are now working towards making these new adjustments, which brought up interesting innovations to space and how we make use of our space, inclusive of all our people (s).

CARING FOR INNOVATION
Now as we negotiate this idea through space, I'm weary of how the state understand, fully the potential of a social artdesign project to engage the negative behavior, while at the same time placing positive behavior in our community. 

for this to work, we need to invest in social training and consistency in keeping this system going, till it is ingrained into the culture

  


Innovation isn't easy to tract, this journal is an attempt to tract a art-design project, through space,

1. For archival purposes
2. The ability to understand the internals of innovative project development

So stay tuned

THE REDESIGNING OF THE STUDIO
The artist and their space is a personal interpretation 
of the individual pursuits, ambitions. 

My studio has been a refuge from dis mad world I live in.
It is a place, where I can make sense of what is happening. Continually I have been attempting to blur 
the line at how the work in my personal space can move 
further into the development and planning of space, 
challenging the product of the personal space, 
the studio!

2018, and before that I have been working in a methodology, where
I have been able to make urban proposals The PlaySpace File, shows the work that we have been proposing. So looking at how my space functions, in making. I have realized that The Studio, needed to take on a more ambitious look to engage from a hand to eye, challenging, this artists control, understanding and re-educating 
oneself of materiality.

DESIGN CONCERNS
Space,has it own value; my space is intimate, small, private, multi-functional in the everdayness of the house, it is a garage, it is a place to shelter from the rain, there is a bathroom; so it is used by workers who come into do work on the house.
in coming to a art-design solution, without compromising the green values of the landscape, 
1. - I have attempted to expand with that in mind, an extension of the roofing on the south value of the garage, gave me more space to work and cut down the rain coming into the space, 
2. - then I placed a grid, allowing for the removal of electric cords on the ground, safety, ease of movement, the grid also upgrades how, I can use the space, in taking photographs, doing video art work, etc.
3. - The Storage Room - I brought the roofing out on the west elevation, added a little more shelves, got rid of useless, things, which is hard for a collage artist, all things have value.
4.  - Landscape - I'm of the opinion that the landscape can be used to be part of the future storage needs, store in plain site.

here is one example of the grid at work, allowing the hanging of canvass. Photographing one
of four sculptures part of The Toxic Form Project.

FUNCTION AS A FORM, TOWARDS AESTHETICS

Storage,where do you place the work, the solution develop a moving

storage space, where I can hang, the canvasses, into the landscape

The above sketch is of the painting closet, which which will be stored in the landscape, between the plants. Concerns will be 

1. humidity, 

2. air flow, 

                3. ability to take weathering

THE WORK SPACE, THE WORK BENCH

The above looks at how the space will work, in a circular operational mode, both clockwise and anti-clockwise in its

ability

THE LANDSCAPE - STORING IN PLAIN SITE

Including the landscape to be part of the storage plan, rather than a hindrance, using vetivere to partition space, placing object as both sculptural and functional into the space, using the mango tree as storage.

TOOLS
Tools, is important to working in this new methodology, of constructionist frame. When this happens, although the brush and pencil is important, other tools are now, finding their influence on the canvass. The Toxic Form Project, as much as it is a collage, process, the art, is one of sculpting, constructing a surface. Tools, now become an extension of the eye and hand

 THE STORAGE SPACE - 
now in reorganizing the space, there is a little wiggle room

conclusion
The studio, of the future of artist, will need to be vigorous in it making. I have postulated, that the new Trinidad and Tobago, artists, or at least this artist, needs to enter the discourse of planning and development. 
What this means, for the 
1 - artist
2 - the work
3 - the studio
This means, the studios, private indulgences will evolve. To what? an inclusive genre of participatory aesthetics, which will provide another economy, for the artist.
We're not quite there and this will take time to evolve. But I can say this, when you go to the Regional Corporation,statutory meetings, look on the board, there is a committee, which has aesthetics as part of title. 
This isn't much, because, what they mean by aesthetics, is not my understanding of aesthetics, but being there means, we can have a dialog with them about that word.
When this happens, (this should be a conversation we as an artists community, should be having consistently with our leaders and community) we should be able to be in 
Social Development Aesthetics, truly functional form making, rather than mural making, (not knocking murals) just knocking the simple levels they consider me, the artist in community development.
  

LAST DAY THOUGHTS

LOOKING BACK 2017 AND FORT 2018

THE WORK BELOW, WAS PRESENTED IN THE 

SPACE INNA SPACE 

THE WORK ALLOW ME TO HAVE FUN, WITHIN A SMALL FRAME, I ENJOYED THE ATTITUDE AND WILL CONTINUE TO WORK WITHING THE SMALL FRAME

TRANS MAN- 14"X16", MATERIAL-Acrylic, Graphite, Ink on canvass Date-2017

TRANS-MAN-2017- Materials-acrylic, graphite, ink, canvass

TRANS-MAN-2017 - Dimensions-14"X16", Materials-acrylic, graphite, ink, paper, glue

TRANS-MAN-2017 Dimensions-14"x16", Materials-acrylic, graphite, paper, glue

On this last day, I felt it fitting to look back at what has happen in this 2017, as an art maker. Lots have happened and will continue to happen way into the new year. One of the happening things, was my visit to Pennsylvanian University to meet Prof John Jackson, Dean of, THE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL POLICY AND PRACTICE, and Aaron Levy, Director of SLOUGHT FOUNDATION 

 

Add caption

Above, photo-1-Prof. John Jackson.....Photo-2 - Andrea Ngan and Aaron Levy, both of The Slought Foundation

The opportunity to develop a collaborative relationship around the work, we have been developing around art-design in developing community spaces, is something I'm interested in seeing happening.

What will happen, if we invest, time, into a space placing the necessary needs into that space? 

While doing that, everything that happens will have serious aesthetic value, even if it is placing a table into a room. 

How will social development look.

THE ARENA SAVANNAH PLAYSPACE PROPOSAL

THE EAST MORVANT PLAYSPACE PROJECT PROPOSAL

The two photos above, are two examples of proposals made for two communities. There are interesting back stories to them, which we will like to document, in learning how our space invokes certain hurdles in supporting innovation. A story aptly exemplified in 

The Tacarigua Sculptural PlaySpace Project 

This story is filled with an artist struggles in moving in and out of space.

If you wish you can view more of the work in the PDF file

THE PLAYSPACE FILE

This should give you an idea of the work we have been attempting. Getting our people, community, institutions, corporations, that making social art-design, takes time, time, time!

ART

One of my most memorable moments and will continue into 2018, which I hope to present sooner than later is the Toxic Form Project, which will be the presentation of 18 paintings and four sculptures.

What I like about this particular project is the process. 

From, developing the molds, filling them with expanding foam, papier mache, then finding a low pressure spray gun, to spray them.

The experience, gave me the opportunity to work with my with my hands, getting back the confidence and seeing wider possibilities in developing the sculpture, in different forms and performances, which can happen in future projects.

THE STUDIO

This brings me to the studio, as the year is ending, I have been actively developing the work space, rearranging it, so I will be able to explore, confidently the 3-dimensional, the functional, the products that we live and certain performances, which I have conceptually developed and proposed.

It is wow when working in a small space, how creative one will have to get to store paintings, tools, machines and materials. One solution in storing in plain sight. As well as getting rid of stuff!

WORK IS WORK, 

SPACE IS SPACE, 

PEOPLE IS PEOPLE

WHAT I HAVE LEARNT,

ART INVOKES...

POLICY,

ACTIVISM,

COMMUNITY,

ECONOMICS.

ART INVOLVES WORKING

IT ALL

WHAT I'M AWARE NOW MORE THAT ANY OTHER TIME THE ARTIST OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO, WILL HAVE TO ADAPT URBAN PLANNING METHODOLOGIES IN FINDING SPACE IN THE DEVELOPMENT PARADIGM.

AS THE ECONOMY CHANGES, IT WILL BE MORE EVIDENT THAT THIS WILL NEED TO HAPPEN.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

DARLEN