In the light of the passing of Ms Patricia Bishop.
who tirelessly fought for the upliftment
of culture and the arts.
this should be read.
rest in peace.
who tirelessly fought for the upliftment
of culture and the arts.
this should be read.
rest in peace.
The Art Society and Label House.
The Subjective Re-positioning of the Painting to the
Non-Subjective Advertisement.
The Oval Project in Deconstructing
the Idea of the Original.
Caribbean Artists are caught up in seeking new visual contexts - philosophically, politically, socially and most of all aesthetic inclusion within the global art community. How is our language is to be presented? Is one of the main struggles that seem to be impeding a progressive or united way forward within the arts. This is the soap opera drama that is consuming our cultural politics. The struggle between subjective assumptions of how art should be represented and presented put forward by certain groupings in our cultural community and an alternative representation of contemporary aesthetics put forward the new progressive and intellectual art movement. These two positions have taken local art into a headlong debate on relevance and propriety, art and aesthetics, class politics, internationalism and institutions place in the development of our modern art discourse and practice.
We have witnessed the emergence of a range of debates with relevance to cultural policy. These have been initiated or facilitated through – The Ministry of Arts and Multi-Culturalism, the Innovation Symposiums of the Ministry of Planning and Economic Restructuring and the “Localize It” Campaign of the Ministry of Sport.
Maybe for the first time in our recent history we are having a discourse that includes (possibly because of the reality of the impending end of the oil and gas revenues and a need for an alternative income stream) cultural policy and art intellectuals and organisations, whose understandings about the political, economic and sociological benefits of art and artistic work are critical to the debates on development.
Caribbean visual artists have the unique ability to source their philosophical understanding from multiple vantage points or “Plug Ins” as scholar activist Babacar M’bow describes - Africa, India/South Asia, Europe, Middle East, China and most of all the indigenous people. This remarkable position of strength if allowed to mature properly will allow Trinbagonian artists to develop a strong philosophical language that can enhance international art discourse and practice from our creative and intellectual perspective; from a position of confidence and self-esteem.
Throughout our history the ‘middle-class’ cultural project, through its institutions has always been at odds with the “indigenous” or the “jammette” culture and for one reason or the other has always tried to re-negotiate its position within the cultural matrix, in collusion with the business sector and the State.
Recently we have seen a spate of art interventions in the public domain that have displayed the art product as an object, distant from its original intention and meaning. Repositioning it as disposable advert, robbed of its iconic position and meditative quality originally intended by the artists, and designers.
The Oval Project led to the Waterfront Project, then the Airport... These projects are being supported by the Art Society – middle-class, educated, and well meaning, artists and art enthusiasts and The Label House – a private sector organisation. I am sure also lovers and supporters of the arts.
Although I believe that these projects will not stop the enduring spirit of the artists who want to see their work presented in its true sprit. These projects highlight, why and how we stand at the periphery of international art discourse. The lack of intellectual commitment among our vanguard cultural institutions to fight for the relevance of true aesthetics, building on the heritage of earlier artist interventions, which we can find throughout our cultural landscape.
Carlisle Chang at City Hall and The Old Textel (TSTT) Building and the Old Piarco Airport. Pat Chu Foon, Beryl McBurnie, Leroy Clarke, Peter Minshall and Sybil Atteck of the original Art Society. They and many more have laid down serious traditions in the arts both publicly and privately. They have all provided in some way a philosophical start for our arts and have shown how it can and should function. They have created a relevance in the arts from which we could all still learn a great deal if we would only study, analyse and learn from their experience.
Although modernity has distorted this relevance with the reinterpretation and political use of culture and the arts in the global world, the discourses on postcoloniality and art relevance has been challenged, reshaped and presented within the contemporary Caribbean context, by a new generation of artists. They have repositioned the body, the carnival, the performance and the dance in ways that articulate a new politics, although these new presentations may be criticised as neo-colonial representations of an encroaching Western intellectualism.
It still can be said however, that a new generation of artists is struggling to infuse the landscape with new languages, practices and meanings, before it spins off into something irretrievable. Through new organizations such as TnT Entertainment Company, the Coalition of Service Organizations, Artist Coalition of Trinidad and Tobago, the UWI Th?nk Forums, Alice Yard, Erotic Art Week, T&T Fashion Week, The Jazz Alliance, Studio 66, The UWI Sculptural Project and the One-Day Symposium, the Exodus Pan Yard, The Lloyd Best Institute, Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival and The Bocas Literary Festival. These are all attempts at art relevance, putting forward the very best of what we do.
Relevance should come from the stimulation of scholars, philosophers, art activists, cultural activists, technocrats and bureaucrats. Visual artists should be leading this process.
The UWI One Day Symposium on Art, Design and Architecture, was a step in that direction and I hope that there will be more of this to come; efforts to truly investigate and explore our new visual art possibilities.
So why are these well meaning and deserving institution are participating and promoting such ill conceived somewhat inappropriate projects?
I was able recently to sit and share with Senegalese art activist/scholar Babacar M’bow about the work he and other artists are pursuing in making Caribbean visual art products enjoy a greater presence in the economic and intellectual life of South Florida’s hegemonic Euro-American gallery system. The question for us in Trinidad and Tobago however, is how do we see our art products functioning in this predominantly black/brown/coloured, and economically and ideologically ‘white’ society.
When we have matured enough to answer that question, we then need to develop a discourse of art politics that can be presented at the patriarchal and hegemonic table of Western art discourse. This of course will take investment and commitment, maturity, self-esteem and confidence in our artists and cultural institutions.
THE PROJECT
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| THE OVAL |
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| THE WATERFRONT |
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| THE OVAL |
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| THE OVAL These projects have been initiated, with some level of support from our elder artists. with certain reprecussion to the level of worth and reprecussion to the original. |
Let us define some of these new developments.
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways. The most common method of presenting animation is as a motion picture or video program, although there are other methods.[1]
Site-specific art exist within a purposeful space that illuminates both the art work, the space or architecture that the Specific art work is designed for. Site Specific art can include architecture, landscape works, almost anything that is designed for that location. Interesting to note the removal of the art work often destroys the intention of the Specific design. It generally formed out of the 50’s and 60’s, holding all the principals of conceptualism, earth works decontectualism and alternative practice.  |
| The Animae Caribe |
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| Dean Arlen, proposal for a site on the UWI, St. Augustine Campus, Trinidad and Tobago. |
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| Dean Arlen, installation of Red Devil, Co-Authors. Supported by BLAC. |
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| Squatter House- To some extent, this in my opinion can be considered Site-Specific. |
Outdoor site-specific artworks as the above is often attributed to a specific space but have taken to involve performance, often architecture. Within our creole context religious structure and specific structure will be included in this definition.
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| And out door. |
Art Installations- A very popular and contemporary movement in the Caribbean, used by artists to transform space temporarily or permanently. Using the character of that space or infusing meaning into that specific space. Art installation creates a theatrical moment that includes the body of the viewer to create it’s sensation. Art installations can use both internal or external space.
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| Dean Arlen, |
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| Chris Cozier. Attack of the Sandwich Men |
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| Chris Cozier |
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| Example of Sculptural Installation. |
Landscape Art- As above
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| http://www.greenantilles.com |
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| There are some naive landscape art, which I haven't collected at this time. But agriculture is an example of landscape art.  Is an example of landscape art. www.southasianoutlook.com |
Mural - when an artist with intention places a complete sentence on an interior or exterior wall attached to a building or not that is a mural. Murals have a history connected to the fine arts, but have evolves to include graffiti and contemporary artists. Murals will be considered large in it’s presentation.
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| Scarborough, Tobago. www.lonelyplanetimages.com |
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| The Noble Spirit of Man. |
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| Mural Trinidad and Tobago. Unknown. |
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| Mural. www.trinidadguardian.com |
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| Tranquility Secondary School, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. http://thebookman.wordpress.com |
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| Interior, www.electrovoicec.com |
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| Maxi, www.nkosi868deviantart.com |
Graffiti- Unlike murals is less intense in it’s requirement for space, time and preparation. Usually illegal or an underground art movement in our Caribbean space. Graffiti normally takes on a political partisan and religious proselytizing look. Contemporary artists have been using the exterior space to present their views artistically and politically.
Pop Art- Feeds off of the culture of material objectification. It co modifies it within the art work with other materials. Pop art importance is the sensation that it creates. Which is the presentation of an intellectual discourse of materiality and the environment that creates this material religion.
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| Richard Rawlins. Meege. http://aliceyard.blogspot.com |
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| Chris Cozier. |
Conceptual art- Deals more importantly with ideas, the driving forces being the texts that outlines the aesthetics.
“ | In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art. | ” | ||
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Sculpture- can be presented most of the time in the hard traditional three dimensional form and can be presented in almost any material available to the artist. Sculpture can include the modern art form of sound, performance, text and light. The assembling of different materials is a traditional sculptural tradition in Trinidad and Tobago.
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| Dean Arlen. Yellow House. |
Printing- has a long and strong history in our thecnical institution in reproducing texts, in our evolution images and art form. It is connected to our industrial history rather than our Caribbean art movements.
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| Old School Priniting. www.socawarrior.com |
Fine art or the fine arts came from a school of thought that said the fine arts included a five schools of thought that included architecture, painting, poetry, sculpture and music. This has changed to include certain modern and contemporary changes and expansion of the five principles.
It is also understood from the principles of excellence, that a trades man can be a fine artist.
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| Leroy Clarke |
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| Boscoe Holder. www.toomucheyes.com |
Painting is application of applying paint usually to canvass, but can be prepared board, wood or movable any movable surface. The surface can be fixed. But you paint within a specific dimension.
Graphic design- usually connected to the consumption industry of buying and the selling of a service or product. Using text, photography, film and recently branding performances or events. Graphic design have come to include almost any of the five arts to get their promotions across. So the idea of developing or conceptualizing a promotion.
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| Carnival Graphics. www.coroflot.com |
Designer- usually creates a product or object structurally and aesthetically that can be translated thecnically. Taking into consideration economic, manufacturing, marketing and social factors, that will see the objects placement in society. In Trinidad and Tobago we have a strong designer tradition, from tailors, seamstress, industrial design- the pan, Carnival and craft.
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| Marlon Darbeau. http://marlondarbeau.blospot.com |
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| Peter Minshall. hhtp://www.flckr.com/photos/43044619@n07/3966464164/ the fact of the matter is as the above will show we have artists working in all sort of materials and styles. There are lot more. This needs to be encouraged and developed. APOLOGIES. I tried to link all the photos that where sourced off the net. I apologize for anyone that I missed out. Please don't beat me over the head. |
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