Vincent Van Gogh - Self portrait series

A man who painted for companionship to combat his loneliness

In this portrait, I felt, stiff, cold, small framed, agitated and troubled as I longed for recognition. I could no longer continue to bear my insecurities as a painter, and as an artist who was tormented in every way. My life spent in shambles. (At this moment I felt a connection, eerie, prophetical)

Vincent Van Gogh's heart was immense, yet he (foolishly) give it up to his love of painting, forever forgotten. His soul is protected.

What ever this means to you, I want to say thank you, thank you for your courage, for your motherland, and to your art, unknowingly, yet foretelling (to the world)

Carlisle Chang - Self portrait series

The Inherent Nobility of Man - A study of illusion and reality, parody, humour and humanity

In this self study, I felt free, free in my will to bask in the sun's rays and to be free from the ropes of my past. This was a new beginning, a rebirth if you will, from a place I treasured very dearly. A place bountiful and tropic. I saw a new adventure, I saw the uncharted waters and the foreseen horizon. I was excited, but also afraid in my wake.

And where I could shine, I felt as if I was playing in an individual carnival costume, covered with glitter and in high boots. Centre stage for the Queen to see, the spotlight was on me. Yet, my wings could not make me fly. I should be noted that the character from this work took on the likeness of the mythical Icarus.

In this composition, I captured a man who was fussy, flamboyant in his ways, but a man who loved the possibilities of a nation, independent and free. Carlisle Chang's heart was suppressed, his (loves) were lost.
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The Artist Carlisle Chang was a national treasure, 1921-2001, and he really did not get the credit he deserved. He took on the task of creating a modern vision for an island state that had no idea where it was going in 1962. He sought to look at our culture and our past and meld these forms of iconography together to create the Inherent Nobility of Man.

This masterwork was one that was meant to stand for the ages for our country. It was the equivalent in some ways to Picasso's Guernica. Not for being a representation of war and a hope for peace in a literal way, but of an idea and ideal of nationhood.

We take his work completely for granted, thinking that he was simply an artist of a period. Maybe it is the fact that the work of the time and the work of today do not seek to express such high ideals for any reason, as his clearly did then. Mr. Chang has left a remarkable legacy, but can we read about him freely in our libraries? Is his work preserved enough? Luckily there are a few pieces in very good condition that are still around.

In 'Nobility', Mr.Chang was embarking on a type of painting that was unprecedented at that time, to create a mural with specific overtones to nationalism, patriotism and statehood.
Mr.Chang's painting of the warrior looking up to the sun with the wings of the Humming Bird, yet still earth bound suggests our own inability to sour within the easily won freedom of our age. When Nobility was made, he was looking at an uncharted horizon of a new born country, with all the hope and heart filled love of the idealist. To have that hope destroyed by his own people years later, certainly broke him and it arguably remains as the single worst case of conscious art vandalism and destruction in Trinidad and Tobago.

This work was lovingly attempted by his protégé,in his own humble attempt to right the wrong done. However, it is the original that holds the truth of an expectation that should touch us still today. - Adele

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti - Self portrait series

A study of illusion and reality, parody, humour and humanity

In this revision of a self study of Michelangelo, I found myself lost. At first, I felt a man who was somewhat, (soft in his manner), but then, I could not see or describe anything else but rather of an (overwhelming being) that completely merged with me, feininoptic if you like. Somehow I knew, as it was someone I thought quite fondly of, a man who knows (what all this means to me), and why I am so restless, so unfulfilled, softly touching as I am lost in him.

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Related to the fresco, the Creation: Moments after I completed this self study, I was compelled to take a bath. There, I washed and scrubbed my skin in vigorous motion as if I was polishing stone or to remove the cakes of sweat from a body weak and tired. This has relevancy. In this composition, it gave meaning to an artist who in his right mind was a pronounced omni-god, a genus beyond any description.

What I felt was a painter who exercised every part of his body, every muscle, every blood vessel to produce a mirage of the meaning of life, in its creation and its afterlife. I felt the presence of a man who uplifted the (world) and gave his benefactors the visions they wanted to see in a specular and glorious exaggeration.

In this creation, I felt as if (Man) was of the flesh, and at an age that stood still at twenty five. And that (God) was very much envious of his (beauty), so dainty, so longing and free. Yet, this is how Michelangelo saw the image of (God) as a reflection of himself. He was a sweetman, a saga boy who had captured the hearts of many, but loved only a few.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Self portrait series

A study of illusion and reality, parody, humour and humanity

I was deeply sad over this self portrait as I expected more from an individual who was regarded a genius, his aura seemed normal; no spinning cogs or fits of invention. yet, I felt as if I suffered from autism, and I was compounded by a great burden, an earnest supreme unfulfilled life. There was so much more I wanted and so much I regretted.

In this portrait, I felt like a child, an inquisitive being who was dealt the hands of (God), a gift. Troubling, tiring, hurtful, misrepresented and misused, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's heart was always open.

Marilyn Monroe - Self portrait series

A study of illusion and reality, parody, humour and humanity

In the history of American icons from the twentieth century , Marilyn Monroe has be immortalized by artists in the effort to give her a sense of reincarnation. I found this self study to be just that, immortal, captured from a negative. Nevertheless to say, I was overcome by a dainty girl who by all means was prudish, concerned over her height, bitchy, clingy and needy.

Her popularity was a reflection of someone who hated all the attention, but craved it (independently). She was no fool, bright, careless in her ways and suspicious of people. Her life was turbulent, her passing, a kept secret, forever and ever and ever.

Marilyn Monroe’s heart was open to her perpetual insecurities, her spirit lingers.

Pablo Picasso - Self portrait series

A study of illusion and reality, parody, humour and humanity

Well, to begin with, I have fun with this self study. By all means, I am masked behind a man who was proud of his achievements. Yet, he was a tyrant, obsessed over money and rebellious. Angered and bitter that age had robbed him of his youth, his vigor and prowl. A mastermind of deception, forgery and a trickster capable of making art out of shear stupidity and having his admirers jump at his every whim.

Here was a man full of himself, a bull, a Picasso having the gall of wanting to be a Picasso. It amused him, his self admiration, his ownership of others. In his lifetime, his heart belonged to only one love.

This study made me aware of my own self worth, about a fragility to one's mortality. How I will be remembered is exactly how I predict it, with my love at my side, and a passage a bit turbulent at the first, but a flight into the aura of mankind's mystery. In forgiveness, and in understandings, I shall say quietly to myself, so this is it, how simple, how marvelously cute, like a button.

In this study, I realized that Pablo Picasso was fighting his inner demons, he was not willing to except his mortality.

Jan van Eyck - Self portrait series

I, myself and me


The marriage, where not I bring forth

This piece, I'll be remembered for as it is a refection on my life rather than a self portrait. It has layered meaning, and is more powerful than a work by Damien Hirst, because it toys with the concept of procreation to which I will not forth bring. I felt myself quite disturbed and ill over this composition as if it was an omen that life in its premise should not be tampered with. We are condemned if we neglect it of its purity.

In this marriage, the woman here has committed a act that is most unforgivable. I had some sense that her child was not of his seed, and I was overcome with greed, gluttony and of a marriage build not from love but of necessity.

The painter was a man of great repute and he saw fit that his commissions were of a quality that reminded him of decorum, diplomacy and splendor. Jan van Eyck's heart was measured by his deeds.

Leonardo da Vinci - Self portrait series

The annunciation by the Archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary , A study of illusion and reality, parody, humour and humanity

Here was an architect and a man with a vast span of knowledge accumulated through his inquisitiveness and union with nature and God. The self study brought a sense of a precise composition relating to a biblical tale which I felt the weight by both bearers. The intricacy of the painting had been devised through calculations, measurements and perspective.

In this composition, I felt layered with oils, linseed and pitch. In it I felt stiff, static as if I were two props that added fifty pounds to my weight. This had me motionless and fixed to the ground where I could not move. Dead in its emotion. Yet, there was a message to be said from God's unyielding hand, (I come to you to bring forth my son.)

Leonardo da Vinci's Belief was either here or their, it floated somewhere in the middle. His heart held the key to the mysteries of life, and his patients and virtues led to an experience he was fully grateful for. The power was overwhelming, his triumphs will live for eternity. See the Mona Lisa self portrait study

Hieronymus Bosch - Self portrait series

A study of illusion and reality, parody, humour and humanity

This detail of Hieronymus Bosch' s Garden of earthy delights had an overpowering degree of perversion, and it equated death represented as pyres of burning corpses. It also harped at the earthly pleasures of the tempted flesh, and of its morality eclipsed by human procreation. The self study portrait gave me a prickly fetish sensation particularly by the composition with me hugging a huge owl. I could sense the size, the softness of its feather and the beat of its heart - What a weird feeling.

Hieronymus Bosch was indeed mad, but his heart was like a Pandora's box, when it opened, you were surprised with a bouquet of flowers.

Albrecht Dürer - Self portrait series

A study of illusion and reality, parody, humour and humanity

For a fraction of a second, Albrecht Dürer's self portrait foretold of an individual who was a thinker, mathematician, observer and an engraver who lived a solitude life of immense loneliness. He had an obligation to his people (kind), and believed in the Divine. He envisioned the world in distance, as lines, squares and compasses, yet he was a man quite staunch in his ways and fussy over his appearance. Cold, his heart was wrapped with chains. I was sadden by this feeling.

Giotto di Bondone - Self portrait series

Giotto di Bondone's, altar painting - A study of illusion and reality, parody and humour

After producing this work, I was overcome with sense of purity, beauty and tranquility that spoke of a painter who sacrificed his entire being to his forcible faith. The reconstruction of the piece actually brought me to tears as it exemplified a man who was capable of grieving while he painted the depiction of Christ mourned after his death. This, I concede is what faith really represents, and what art should foretell. It is an example of the exasperating truth in what a man believes.

My friends, my colleagues - Jeffrey Chock

I save your life - You pay me royally


Garry Chan inspecting the work of Jeffrey Chock's black and white photographs in aid of the photographer at Softbox, Trinidad. The prints he says are negatives that are quite old and of places that may no longer exists. The exhibitions runs until the 28th September, 2008

Photographers and artists have come to the aid of Jeffrey Chock who experienced complications of kidney and heart failure in Toronto, Canada.

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Abigail Hadeed's subdued portrait of the traditional mas character representing the mythology dragon which is a fire breathing reptilian body with wings. The carnival protraits were taken during her session at Adam Smith's Square in Port of Spain, Trinidad and it embodies her role as to archiving these characters like her her colleague, Jeffrey Chock who had done in the past. The prints are signed and stamped by the photographer.

One of the pieces for sale in aid of Jeffrey Chock at Y gallery, Port of Spain

The thirteen photographers including Stephen Dalla Costa, Bertrand de Peaza, Alex Smailes, David Wears, Ian Chan, Gary Chan, Noel Norton, Abigail Hadeed, Mark Lyndersay, Stephen Broadbridge, Frederic Dubray, Wyatt Gallery and Jeffrey Chock have donated their work in his aid. The fund raiser is part of two exhibitions, where visual artists are going to be at the Y gallery, Port of Spain this coming Satuday. The proceeds are for Mr. Chock's medical bill which is the excess of $ 50,000 US dollars. For donations to his health fund please contact Georgia Popplewell for further inquires.

A bank account has been opened for Jeffrey. Deposits can be made at any Trinidad and Tobago branch of Scotiabank. Cheques should be made out to "M. Mahabir". The account number is #4004891.

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Hippocratic Oath Modern Version

I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:

I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.

I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.

I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug.

I will not be ashamed to say "I know not," nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient's recovery.

I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to save a life, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own frailty. Above all, I must not play at God.

I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person's family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.

I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure.

I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.

If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.

Christ - Self portrait series

A series of overlapping frames portraying the deity, Jesus Christ

This study began as a superimposition using the Christ icon over Paul Gauguin's painting called the Yellow Christ. At first, I experienced a degree of anger and frustration as I attempted to mold myself into his painting. But during the series of stills, I realized that the portraits took on the work of Saint Sebastian, the martyr, and it alluded to a romanticized and sexualized bearer rather than a weighted and suffering Christ.

With the series of frames taken at this wall, I encountered at first, a man who was more likely dead, tied to a post, and that the weigh of his flesh gave a meaning to an excruciating and forbearing pain. Then, for a split second, I felt no past, no future, no sex, (male or female) a nothingness of emptiness and an omnipresence of peace.

The martyr, Saint Sebastian
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This photograph taken by the Bookmann recalls the famous Shroud of Turin which is believed to be literally a bloody snapshot of The Christ. The image is deliberately blurred to give no fixed background, yet it is clear from repetitive imagery, exactly who he is portraying.
This sense of Performance Art and Portraiture reminds you of the prolific Cindy Sherman, who has used herself in many guises for more than a decade.

Appropriating imagery and then turning it on its ear is not new, however, these images by their choice, the large, the powerful, the omnipotent, make you question the artist's sense of self importance. Yet, he also provides a sense of amusement within the works as well, as the place he chooses to shoot is revealed faintly and we know that it is actually a staging of famous art.

So why go to the trouble of repeating such known imagery? In this interpretation of the classic, I suspect that what is old is new again, and The Bookmann is playing with such traditions to test their boundaries and to literally get into the characters that were 'idealized' for public consumption. Through his insertion into these works, he is literally putting a human face on the famous. - Adele

Napoleon I - Self portrait series

A study of illusion and reality, parody and humour

I have never encountered such an overwhelming presence of pomp as with this portrait. The emotions which captivated me lingered for sometime as I was paralyzed at a man who had the world literally. It felt as if I was a conquerer, supreme, untouchable and it spoke of an individual who overcame his inadequacy by a tyrant hand, yet under this skin, his heart was as pure as gold.

GWANGJU - Marlon Griffith - Korea

What I want is to travel all over the world with my art - Marlon Griffith

A few years ago, the Trinidadian artist and Children's Carnival band designer Marlon Griffith declared that he wanted to live his life through his art which would allow him to travel all over the world. And with these set goals, his wish has taken him to places as far as Japan, South Africa and to Korea at the GWANGJU Biennale 2008.


Jarbas Lopes's float, courtesy of Claire Tancons

The GWANGJU Biennale's theme is Position Papers which embodies a series of curatorial proposals and experiments by curators working in Southeast Asia, North Africa, South Korea, and the United States. Claire Tancons for her project, Spring, has included the works of Jarbas Lopes, Karyn Olivier, MAP Office, Marlon Griffith, Mario Benjamin, Jin Won Lee and Caecilia Tripp which appears to be some sort of street performance. Griffith's skill as mas maker is evident and he uses an iridescent material to form a wrapped toga which these street performers are walking, marching or dancing in a choreographic way. The performers are armed with swords and masks made from cardboard which is a signature of the mas maker.


Spring, curated by Claire Tancons with Marlon Griffith street soldiers and Mario Benjamin's back-lite screens to the rear. Images courtesy of Claire Tancons

It should be noted that the iridescent reflection was produced by a portable video projector. Griffith explains that during his two week stay, the Korean Biennale showed how disciplined the Koreans are in their coordination and construction of his piece.

Derek - Isaac Julien - Trinidad Film Festival

Isaac Julien, centre, next to Peter Doig at the Studio Film Club, Port of Spain for his premiere of Derek as part of the Trinidad Film Festival.

Derek, in chronological order, records the work and life that stands at the foot of Derek Jarman’s humour and spirit of being an artist. The filmmaker and actress, Isaac Julien and Tilda Swinton respectively, have produced and narrated a film on his life whereby the use of language is perpetuated to give some type of palpable meaning to British audiences alone, and to their own personal relationship with him.

Through his interviews, notes and film footage, Jarman concurs that his sexuality was deeply repressed, and this facet is the undercurrent that runs through his work and is the bases of his films, like Sebastiane (1976), which had British audiences eager to peek at two men frolicking on a rock. Derek showed rare 8 film footage of the artist and his journey into a series of experimental and time lap pieces.

At the Trinidad Film festival, Trinidadian audiences were privy to a man who expressed himself as who he was, and addressed subjects as sensitive and stigmatic as homosexually, HIV and of its oppression by the British government under Margret Thatcher. Jarman believed that film could be transcribed as painting and moreover understood his limitations as a painter. Film could transcribe into layering of the motifs that surrounded his inner infatuation of the self and self representation.

Isaac Julien’s objective is to arouse the interest and importance of his work to young British artists to a man who fought for his rights in the public eye, and lived the end of his life with dignity, acceptance and of his love of being. Julien’s documentary is to acknowledge Derek Jarman as one of the most influential filmmakers in British cinema.

Isaac Julien with the mike, Chris Ofili to his right, Peter Doig, standing, Che Lovelace from his left at the Studio Film Club, Trinidad
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Although of his importance as a contemporary filmmaker, Isaac Julien's production was compounded by an overly artistic and unmemorable monologue by Tilda Swinton which couldn't be understood as she wondered through the streets of London and at the subject's former cottage and stone garden. Derek failed to stimulate any interest at its premiere at studio film club during the Trinidad Film Festival. Eh, what de fock she manguing we with?

Crown - Self portrait series

E .........p .........i .........p .........h .........a .........n .........y


A study of illusion and reality, parody and humour

I pledge allegiance to no nation, no kin, no thing other than my heart where truth exists in its purest form, only then shall I understand why

Wearing this object feels quite normal. It is a bit musty from the inside and it sags by the weight of the crown stone that pulls it to the front. There is no feeling of history, yet there is the overwhelming presence of obligation. The piece has no price.
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The concept of, for Queen and country become acute with the subversion of its meaning in this performance piece. He sits on a ‘throne’ with the false weight of the crown on his head. A crown that he has appropriated from a real photograph of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth. He has managed to make the crown look as though he has actually faked it in ‘real life’ like a prop from a stage play. When in actuality, it is ‘the’ crown.

His posture is reflective of all historical art poses of the wealthy and the nobility.
The presence of the dog, casually passing by, pausing to protect his private parts is another layer of meaning on a very staid background. This breed of dog has its own pedigree and its elegant bearing helps to heighten the question, what exactly is going on within the frame?
The dog is not at his side, helping to bring a sense of style, but instead is at the forefront, almost as though by accident. Yet, without the dog, the piece changes meaning completely, as more nudity would provide more questions. Although the bare chest already suggests an unsettling doubt to the question of a type of power. Is this element about brawn for example?
There is also an air of suppressed (or not) sexuality. A campiness to the crown tilted on the head like one would a cap. Not too different from the meaning made by Damien Hirst of the diamond skull, literally taking something of one type of value and overlaying it with another.

In these times, what is truth, what is reality? The monarchy's survival is constantly in question. The dog is clearly staring at the head that wears the non existent crown, and the entire image is washed out as though it were a painting and not a photograph. He plays with many illusions, and all are provocative. - Adele

Is Brooklyn ah study Hairdressing

A wall painting of a barber shop, Backstreet at Barataria, Trinidad courtesy of P.D.

This is an eye catcher located off Barataria, Trinidad. The owner of the Barber shop wants you to know that he had his Hairdressing training in a Big City, namely Brooklyn, New York. There, he realized that how elegant, confident and refine you look can take you places such as to this wall. The artist responsible for this motto has executed the barber as a Saga Boy who is decked out in a red polyester suit complemented with black brogue shoes. He posture shows his seductiveness and availability to both sexes to lure them into his shop. Men want to look like him, and woman just want to be with him. His self-assurance is represented by his hand tug at his waist. His personal haircut should have a clean part to finish his look.

His companion, and love of his profession is a seven foot Claes Oldenburg barbering shears. Both are standing in front of a varnish stone wall that shows a specular view of new grand city with its high risers and sky walks, Port of Spain.
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Brooklyn, New York is one of many places in the world of immigration that has deep historical meaning for people of African descent. It represents hope and for many, financial success. The bowels of New York open out every year and spit their inhabitants holding green cards and visa’s back to their islands for carnivals. Only to ingest them again.

The painting on this backstreet barber shop holds in mind all of the meaning associated with such promise. The image is reminiscent of the old fashioned photographs taken during the Harlem Renaissance and our own distant past of the 1950’s, where the elegant black population dressed for success, as opposed to excess today.

Our painter tells us that self assurance is all in a good shave and mark of the head. It causes men to admire and women to perspire with desire. The background of nondescript buildings hark to a metropolis of unknown origin, the foreground with the tree remind you of Central Park, Manhattan or anywhere that urban meets suburban. He is standing in a red,velvet suit with a scissors that flanks him in size, an Andy Warhol or Claes Oldenburg prop that makes clear that the message is all about style,class and polish. - Adele

Buccoo Reef in Zurich

A peddler's screen saver


Next to Lake Zurich, Switzerland, an artist executes a pavement painting using pastels in the hope that his effort may fill the empty cans that surround it.

Zurich has its history as a banking capital, the region as I recall had narrow streets and hills. It also had a problem with drugs and addicts. In some restaurants, the washrooms are fitted with a blue light so that an addict cannot find his or her vein. Nevertheless, the Swiss are very sophisticated people whose decorum for proper etiquette may be expressed by a sample. In restaurants, your pet may be allowed to join you at the table.


The street artist sits at the edge of his chalk coral reef rendition

Monika Nicoletti has photographed a street artist who has a longing for the Caribbean sea and of the Buccoo Reef in Tobago. His pastel drawings is full of aquatic life swimming with coral fans, reef sharks and parrot fish. Yet, his pavement painting is a copy of a computer screen saver. Monika's observation of the man is described in the following excerpts;

I was watching him for a long time. The painting looked like an illusion and from a certain angle, it was almost colourless. And from straight above, looked like a three dimensional mirage, and so real. When I asked him if I may take a picture, he proudly stopped painting and placed himself in a dignified position. Hours of work just to be washed away by the next rainfall, until his next street art in another city.

Monika Nicoletti is the author of a website called Pan-Jumbie. She archives any event related to the Steelpan in Zurich, Switzerland and around the world.

Projectile in (mein Herz) - the bookman self studies

Specimen IV: Look at the feather, look beyond the mirror's reflection


Specimen V: Lies, all lies, my past and my immediate future. Truth lost somewhere to my present


Specimen VI: My strengths, my identity, mein Herz holds a burden to a being who is part of me, but not entirely. It is a language that separates our birth

The bookman's self portraits

Specimen 1: A study of self portraits depicting identity overlapped by one's personality. The man sees or does he want to?


Specimen II: Visions and hallucinations, reality and fiction, the man here is caught in between


Specimen III: Masked within a skin not his or of his kin

Feinin: An postmodern art term which implies the remapping of existing iconography to inject a sensory faculty of a present history overlapped over annals of history. Feininology is a homogenization of the self and it attempts to breathe life into the epochs of time where meaning is questioned by the manifestation of its infinitive placing.

Feinin
Feininoptic
Feininology

Ah big focking honky bat - Art at the Tate

The painter and his subject, Man dressed as Bat at the Tate in London earlier this year where half his work were on show

Not long ago, a conversation with the artist, Embah disclosed details over Peter Doig's resent painting called, Man dressed as Bat. The character is quoted from the traditional carnival mas from Trinidad and Tobago, and is a portrayal of a man masked in a bat costume. The history of Mr. Doig's subject may be from a small sculpture which Embah had made. From his resent trip to Paris for Peter Doig's first major exposition at Musée d’Art moderne, Embah was able to examine the painter and his intuitive representation of the flying mammal in which, Peter was capable of capturing the nuances of a man playing in a white bat costume without having any prior knowledge of a deeper upstanding of what the performance really meant.



Man dressed as Bat is life-sized white bat with his wings outstretched and noticeably fluttering. The painting looks muted in colour as the main figure appears to be a white-washed of the bat standing in wet sand, and posed in front of a beach. The residue and scuffing, Doig explains during the interview for the Tate is the natural elements such as rain from his studio in Port of Spain, Trinidad. The painter is a bit stiff during the interview, but he seems overwhelmed over the body of work which he has produced since 1989. It is the places which these paintings were conceived that satisfies his accomplishment. He ends by saying he is not sure where this work may take him, perhaps to a large and permanent fresco?



A shy Peter Doig explains his work at the Tate
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The Bookmann recently sent me a video short of Peter Doig being interviewed at The Tate for a show he had there. It is a pleasure to see his work in that space, before the actual show. To watch him talk about his process and to show his etchings. One gets an insight into the quiet, thoughtful man that he is. His work is extremely evolved and you can see why Che Lovelace, the Trinidadian artist who worked with him at his studio club, would be so very influenced by Doig’s painting style.

Doig paints large and commands paint in a way that makes it an event, and you can see Mr. Lovelace’s homage at a trendy bar in Woodbrook, Trinidad. Yet, there is only ever one Doig. There is something ethereal and tense in his work. It is not just the placements of colur, that does break up the space in such a way that the eye is stilled at certain points. It is also the size of the shapes that he uses. He generally paints one person, or melds together a variety of dusky colours to express a home or a bridge. He paints the mundane, but something in his work, a bit like Edward Hopper in the middle on the nineteenth century, produces canvases loaded with the unanswerable reality of the everyday.

Very easily his work can represent a complete story that changes again and again. He stands before his latest work that he calls Bats, and he tells the viewer that he has allowed the canvas to experience the weather elements and allowed the paint to become as transparent as possible. This is an interesting direction for him to be taking at this time. If he pursues this direction, his painting shall become even more dreamy in nature. To decide to work that way shall push his large canvases into an area of abstraction that I believe he can definitely pull off. The fact that his expression is focused in Trinidad and Tobago and he is producing art without much distraction, is remarkable in that this painter is making very important work, and Trinidad and Tobago factors into this importance.

Strangely enough, I think of the social painter from the turn of the last century in Trinidad, Michel Cazabon who painted our island in an almost anthropological way. His works are lorded as the only known and thus, most relevant art coming out of Trinidad and Tobago at that time. Is it also possible that Mr. Doig is our twenty-first century Cazabon? - Adele

Paint my people - Jean Michel Cazabon

The layman painter


In this Cazabon painting, what do these people signify?

The University of Trinidad and Tobago presented the Research Fellows Series by presenting the study of the Jean Michel Cazabon's work by the writer, Lawrence Scott at the National Library in Port of Spain. Mr Scott's lengthy lecture attempted to place the times, period and association of Cazabon though samples of his paintings and by references by other artists who represented the Caribbean and the Negro as a classification of a people far removed from the European whites. A few of Cazabon's images from his presentation, Scott says that they have never been seen in public before. Michel-Jean Cazabon is regarded as the first noble Trinidad painter and an artist who studied the Masters in England and France.

Caslabon relied on nature to expose the vistas which the plains of the Caroni and the tropical forests at Chagaramas are idyllic in spender. His portraits of the mulattoes, indenture Indians and Negroes where the focal point of debate. The paintings are suggested at to the value and respect and attention Caslabon gave to his subjects. Whether the painter immortalized these people because he had a personal bond with them may be more likely rather less than the European Creoles which no stately portraits were ever recorded. Michel-Jean Cazabon was a recorder of the historic landmarks and common society of Trinidad from 1850 till his death in 1888.

In conclusion, the lecture harped as an analytical parody on the nuances of language and visual interpretation to conjure some sort of meaning in Cazabon's work, rather than observing it for what is was. The discussion over the role of people set on the mount of Laventille hill and particularly of a man showing another man a panoramic view of capital seemed trivial to analyze. Cazabon was determined to represent his people in a positive light as their attire represented their best Sunday garb.Yet, harsher criticism of Cazabon pertains to his alcoholism, his mediocre renditions and of his use of (stick people) as a prop which were placed in his work to give it some sort of composition.

Under the Academy for Arts, Letters, Culture and Public Affairs, Lawrence Scott's paper will be published by the University along with a DVD relating to his thesis. A collection of Jean Michel Cazabon's watercolours can be seen at the National Muesum of Trinidad and Tobago.

A thing is more important than me - Damien Hirst

No more butterflies no more spin painting

The British artist Damien Hirst has put two hundred works of art on auction at Sotheby's. The artist explains his process of art practice is more like as being an architect, and artists don't necessarily have to do the physical work. The business he oversees has a staff of 180 people and operates from nine studios. He also reflected what a museum is, a dusty gallery that hangs dead artist's work and that his work at Sotheby's is more like a retrospective.

The auction, critics believe, is gamble for the artist and for the art market. if buyers fail to bid at all, the fallout will have a domino effect of the true value of contemporary art. This may be a study which may yield a more realistic value of his work, and cause a tumble that you really don't have to pay for something you really don't want. Come judgment day.

During the BBC interview, Hirst simplified his work as butterflies, spin and spot paintings and said he is working on producing one spot painting. The logistics is of a two metres by four metres painting which will contain over a million dots. The work he says will take twenty years or for the rest of his life to complete. His description of the mythical object, the golden Calf produced after his diamond skull, Damien Hirst palms it off as a traditional image from a long time ago. If this clearance sale backfires, Hirst should step away from his art and rethink whether trying to constantly bet himself causes more harm than good. Its not about the money. See the Damian Hirst - Mythology to God

The artist Damien Hirst is selling his work at the famous auction house Sotherby's. This latest 'antic' of his has played right into the hands of those who love to give him free press. The question that I am posing in this article is, what exactly is Mr. Hirst saying about art right now, and what are the implications of his actions?

I have stated in the past that an artist is an entertainer. Mr. Hirst knows this as a certainty. He has been able to draw attention to what he creates and he has more importantly encourage sale for what he makes. He continued in my opinion, the dialogue begun by the very prolific Jeff Koons, who as far as I am aware was the first to float an object in a tank of water as Art.

Not every work created by Mr. Hirst in his career has been remarkable, yet, he has managed to propel himself off of the controversy of his taxidermist centred works in tanks.

These works are indeed beautifully constructed and leave a haunting message, and they have gone on to influence fashion to graphic design, one of the many tests of the power of an artists' skill. It cannot be argued that Hirst has brought some needed fire into the arena of Art today. Love him or hate him, most people cannot dismiss him. Yet, this latest manouvre of his, to sell his work at auction has left me feeling a bit cold. To me the work looks less like the sweat and rigour of a master, and more like the traversed movie set of a Tim Burton.

I do not say this easily. Listening to Mr. Hirst explain his golden calf piece, in the biggest gilded tank built for it, was painful to listen to. He sounded like a gauche billionnaire boasting about something that no one would want to create in the first place. Of itself,the calf is a reflection of mythology and religion, now seen in the context of the present. It is actually quite dramatic to look at. But Hirst's explanation of it dumbs it down to a Liberace-like spectacle and not the remarkable object that it portends to be.

Is it possible that he is suffering from too much publicity perhaps? An artist able to make millions of pounds for his work is a wonderful thing. An artist who can command public attention on the scale that he does is also a boon to the artworld. The auction houses are known for selling the works of dead artists for fantastic prices. Hirst is getting attention for doing so for a living one. He is testing the boundaries of the art market and putting himself out in a risky way. All of this can backfire, and that is his challenge to himself. He is at the top of his game with very little else to prove. Is it possible that he is now becoming redundant? Is it also possible that he is too successful and we are now watching the decline of a once great artist?

Perhaps, but he certainly took us on an exciting ride. - Adele

At my execution - Derek Jarman

I live my life as myself



Derek Jarman's experimental films based on montages of memory, futuristic motifs or distant thoughts overladed by polarizing flares and by his sense of his mortality, love and companionship.

Derek Jarman is considered one of the most important British independent filmmakers. His body of work spans from the 1970s till his death in 1994 and consists of interpretations of historic periods set in England and Europe. In 1993, he produced a film called, Blue. In was a reflection of his life though a man suffering from an illness which impaired his vision. Blue was Derek Jarman's last film from an artist who lived his life as he was, and lay the foundation for future artists to have the inner determination on subjects such as sexually, sexual identity and AIDS.

At the upcoming film festive in Trinidad and Tobago,2008, the British filmmaker Isaac Julien is screening his film about the artist. Derek is a montage of interviews, film footage related to Jarman's life. Julien's work plays on the subject of blackness, revolt and on a theme that bonds them both and that is homosexuality, identity and love.

Isaac Julien, centre, next to Peter Doig at the Studio Film Club, Port of Spain for his premiere of Derek as part of the Trinidad Film Festival.

Excerpts from Blue:

Lost boys sleep forever in a dear embrace, salt lips touching
submarine gardens cool marble fingers touch an antique smile
shore sounds whisper deep lover, drifting on the tide forever
smell of him, dead good looking, in beauty's summer
He blue jeans around his ankles, bliss in my ghostly eye
Kiss me on my lips, on the eyes
Our name will be forgotten, in time, no one will remember our worth
Our life will pass like the traces of a cloud, it be scattered like mist that is chased by the rays of the sun
Around time is passing of a shadow
Our lives will run like sparks through the stubble
I place the delphinium blue, upon your grave

CARIFESTA X - An Alternative to the same old, same old

City of El Dorado, Guyana's buried gold

CARIFESTA 2006 held in Trinidad

CARIFESTA X took place in Guyana, South America this year, and it fell just in the middle of The Olympic Games in Beijing. However, the Guyanese Prime Minister did his best to draw as much excitement to and from it, that he could, and Guyanese people seemed genuinely roused by the festivities. After all, Guyana has gone through much economic and social hardship for decades. Yet some say that Guyana is on the rise, and I certainly hope so.

Meanwhile, in Trinidad and Tobago, the building of the Centre for the Arts is under heated debate, and leads me to ask the question, what can artists do to help themselves become more relevant to society? I ask this because, on the one hand, there are events that prompt the average person in society to say that artists need support. Yet, when a building is finally being erected to support those said artists, there are new issues.

On the one hand you have the gallery system, where artists show their work. You have private buyers, you have corporate buyers of work and you have the artists. I am quite loathe to say that in society today, many people have one of two views of artists. They either think that artists make a great deal of money or do not make money at all. This attitude leads me to conclude that artists need to make the public much more aware of why they are relevant to society. A doctor for example would not have to proove this, but an artist, sadly, does have to do so today.

I say this because I think that alternative art shows are needed in Trinidad and Tobago. A prize like the Hugo Boss Prize in America or an award for excellence in Art would be a great start to making artists relevant to themselves for a start.

I would also suggest prizes for different categories of art and a special type of prize for art that helps society. In Canada, there is the Nuet Blanche, a full on insomniac festival devoted to art. Yes, we have carnival, but carnival is not necessarily art!

One cannot help but feel that art is held as a fringe. That artists are at the edges of society, almost invisible, except for moments when society is engaged with it and comments on talent. It is always the same trite comment at that, that there is so much talent in Trinidad and Tobago…and? What are we doing about it?

The Trinidad Art Society continues to have its November show because it remains as the single most important suggestion of regard for art in Trinidad and Tobago. But the society is a tiny space, and can only do so much.

The corporate world is in need of a presence beyond big buildings with no art inside them to soften or bring a point of view across about itself and the country at large. Yet, what is being done with collections for many of these companies? Are there shows of these collections? Not often! Art always seems to be side lined. However ever so often, when art becomes a focal point, as the CLICO calendar shows, the prize money and the choice of works always cause pause.

So I am going around in circles with my point. The public need to be educated about what is happening in the arts locally and regionally. The corporate world needs to get more involved in the arts and make it much more relevant to their own business mandates, and the artists themselves must start to hold themselves to the highest standards, look at their profession as deserving of much more than handouts and government support and we need to be very loud and clear about just how much we mean to our society by having alternative spaces to show our work and encourage the society to see that we mean business and that it isn’t business as usual. - Adele

New York, Paris, London, Tokyo, Port of Spain - Corner Bar

Corner Bar at the corner of Gatacre Street and Ariapita Avenue in Woodbrook, Port of Spain, Trinidad with the owner, Christopher Leacock relining on one of his imported sofas

After two years in the works and having a deep perseverance to see it complete, Christopher Leacock has renovated the old Rodriguez’s grocery at Ariapita Avenue into an ultra modern yet classic lounging bar. The open space is painted in a Tiffany blue and accessorised with furniture and lamps that have a Norwegian look. The outdoor courtyard is designed with accents toward a Japanese garden. The interior is complemented by a floor finish which Leacock describes as acidified and fixed with a resin.


Che Lovelace's painting of a man with a coat and umbrella and a painted table by the graffiti artist, MANF.

Corner Bar has also required the works of Che Lovelace and the graffiti artist MANF. Lovelace's work is taken from an album cover, yet there are traces of Peter Doig's influences resonating with it. While MANF's graffiti work is used as patterns to cover parts of the wall and as individualised tables.

Rodriguez’s grocery at Ariapita Avenue being renovated to Corner Bar

Leacock explains that his concept is basically a local Rum shop with high amenities. And with these amenities, Corner bar is multi-functional which offers a taste of a music lounge bar's atmosphere which can be matched anywhere in places such as New York, Paris, London or Tokyo.




Learn more about Corner Bar