Caribbean Books - Where it began - thebookmann

In 2002, thebookmann worked on a collaborative book exhibition with Canadian artist Jamelie Hassan called Caribbean Books. At the time, she inquired if whether any of the work from the project were online.There were none. This, thebookmann website and blog is the genesis of that very question.

Jamelie Hassan met Richard Bolai in Trinidad during her Canada Arts Council residency at Caribbean Contemporary Art, CCA7, Trinidad. She recalled that while attending a lecture that he asked an important question on copyright and this began a series of connections revealing that they had previously met in Toronto where he had lived for some years while studying at the Ontario College of Art.

We had moved in the same contemporary art circles in Canada and had many people, places and books in common. Our mutual attention to books became the basis for our collaboration....

Caribbean Books involved the transformation of Ms. Hassan's original photographs of a bookshop in Tobago as five handmade books. Also, a series of ceramic books accompanied ten coloured books with the pages sized and fixed with a coloued dye. The first exhibit was held in Trinidad 2002, then the show traveled to London, Ontario in 2003.
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Alias: the - book - man(n) coined to Richard Bolai (bookbinder) by Peter Minshall

Public Art and the Art of Madness

CORN SOUP, SOUSE AND A MESSAGE FOR THOSE WHO NEED IT


When I think of the work of Cy Twomby and Ross Bleckner I have found them both modern and intelligent, sensitive and actually quite beautiful. The street sign featured above typographic advertising for food I can say are equally as fine as anything I have seen by the aforementioned artists. This is one of those things about art. There are times when it sneaks up on you in all of its glory, and for many of us, it goes unnoticed and unsigned.

Why is this drawings compelling? The way that the artist draws shows an individuality, although it could be considered ‘bad drawing’, its very presence in a public place as part of advertising tells us that to many in that community it is art – and that cannot be denied. But let us also look at the blackboard with the statement, ‘Some People Are Afraid Of Changes’. For a moment, although all of the text in the picture is English, it reads like something that can be alien. For someone who does not know what source is, the sign would read like Greek. Adding the ‘S’ to change gives it a sort of poignancy. The writer clearly has thought about change to the extent that the extra ‘s’ is just so much more powerful. The spacing for the foods, the comma and the hyphens as well as the thinner lettering for the & sign are all quirky and add to the appeal of the street sign.

I cannot help but also cast my mind to Andy Warhol’s protégé, Jean Michel Basquiat, who used a variety of media together. For this road sign the use of a variety of media is for necessity. But we can enjoy it in the same way anyway. I have to also state that I know that for many people art cannot be things they pass by every day on the street. It may be because they are unfamiliar with the main purposes of art, which includes art for is own sake. One of the reasons that these images appeal to us is because “true” Trinidadian comes from the street, and it goes unacknowledged every day. - Adele