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