Jackie Hinkson + Queen's Hall + Blackmas

At Queen Hall, a theater for the performing Arts in Trinidad and Tobago, the foyer is hosting an exhibiting of twenty three Carnival charcoal drawings by Jackie Hinkson. It is a body of work that has been recently produced in 2007 and others that dates from 1996.

In the compositions, Mr. Hinkson shows vignettes of Trinidad and Tobago's carnival by his observation and by his interjected social motifs. In its energy, in its tradition and of its people, his drawings are puns on contemporary society which are representational of Trinidad and Tobago. Mr. Hinkson's later works are less detailed. His strokes are softer and parts of the composition appear to look incomplete. He should either simplify the form or push the gamma of grays to give his drawings the intensity and depth of field exhibited in his earlier works. Yet, it is in the message, in his choice of character (the Midnight Robber) that evokes his satirical stance as his strolls across the streets of Port of Spain, preaching to those who neglect to see.

Mr. Hinkson has often eluded to Francisco Goya as an influence to the satirist view on society. Goya is known for representing the ills of man which he captured the inhumanity of his motherland Spain via its subversive insurrection. Either way, Jackie Hinkson is recording Trinidad and Tobago as its landscape changes. In its architecture, political climate and people.

Blackmas continues till the 31st, January, 2008 at Queen Hall, Port of Spain, Trinidad, West Indies. Here is the opportunity for visitors to island to peek at a culture that seems untamed in its multiplex energy to be creative, yet loss in its direction in a social goal. The drawing above is a detail of a large panoramic view at Viey La Cou. This is where traditional carnival characters such as the Pierrot Grenade (centre) perform. See his mural on the outer facade of the hall.