In light of a sexual personae - Michelle Isava

The orifice, the phallus, and the local school girl

In a small converted room, a young artist is feverishly putting the final touches to her exhibition. In a back room, performers are preparing themselves to a waiting gathering of friends and artists who have come in support. This is an installation and a performance by Michelle Isava entitled, "The temple of local sexuality".

Ms. Isava directs her guests to pass through an orifice fondly labeled " Mother Cunt". This brings you into a space that encloses the installation and to the porta of her inner world of the stigmas of sex, religion and gender related to her environment and Trinidad and Tobago. Earlier last month, she had a fairly successfully exhibition of paintings at More Vino of which two paintings are placed here again. It is unclear if the male erotic works were also displayed. One details a man sexually aroused. But Ms. Isava is speaking not of the pleasures from sex but rather the brutality. The broken cast of a female body is an example of the force of it.

Exploring sex in art as a subject is not a common practiced made by local artists. Ms. Isava seems to have a raw enthusiasm to discover the notions of it in a culture that debates the morals of it. Through this installation, she is attempting to bring to the surface what really exists.

What is interesting is the makeshift studio where she paints, and the energy she has to find herself. There is a shrine which represents her Catholicism and her truest beliefs as a piece of art. Michelle Isava is supported by her family on the subject that most Trinidadians may feel uncomfortable with. This is refreshing. She is energetic and eager to explore what it truly means to be an artist, and the commitment it will take. The exhibition runs for one day. See thebookmann header as her work

Self Promotion at UWI
The cast you see strapped to the tree is part of an public installation by Michelle Isava. They are the backdrop stage set from a performance of students voicing their concerns about being female. The cast is one of a few to make students aware Ms. Isave stresses, a spot known for lovers and incidents of rapes. The broken limbs may suggest a discarded live yet, they are more along the lines of a broken relationship.

Although this artist has much to learn, she manages to create a buzz surrounding her work, and the possibilities of where it can go will be in her persistence. Lower photograph: Michelle Isava's cast limbs at the University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago. (Outdoor installation) Read the debate on female narcissism.