Natasha Said­wan

natasha.said­wan@guardian.co.tt

For renowned artist Jack­ie Hink­son, cre­at­ing a piece of work is a qui­et, con­tin­u­ous con­ver­sa­tion be­tween nar­ra­tive and form. Ahead of his up­com­ing ex­hi­bi­tion this No­vem­ber, Hink­son shares a rare look in­to the cre­ative phi­los­o­phy that un­der­pins his decades-span­ning ca­reer and guides his lat­est col­lec­tion.

At the heart of his re­flec­tion is a ques­tion every mas­ter painter even­tu­al­ly con­fronts: what tru­ly makes a work of art suc­cess­ful?

While ac­knowl­edg­ing the com­plex­i­ty of the an­swer, Hink­son of­fers this per­spec­tive.

“The aim in cre­at­ing a work of art is to com­bine a sto­ry or mes­sage with the for­mal vi­su­al lan­guage of colour, tones, shapes, and com­po­si­tion in or­der to cap­ture some uni­ver­sal re­al­i­ty or ex­pe­ri­ence ca­pa­ble of mov­ing the view­er,” Hink­son ex­plains.

It is a del­i­cate equi­lib­ri­um, Hink­son notes, “Art hap­pens when a thought be­comes an emo­tion.”

In a time where nar­ra­tive of­ten over­shad­ows tech­nique, Hink­son cau­tions against re­ly­ing sole­ly on the im­me­di­a­cy of a mes­sage. With­out a strong vi­su­al foun­da­tion, he adds, art risks los­ing its stay­ing pow­er.

“If that bal­ance of sto­ry with for­mal com­po­si­tion is not com­pelling, the work will not stand up to time—even though it may ini­tial­ly at­tract much ad­mi­ra­tion main­ly be­cause of the im­me­di­ate at­trac­tion of the sto­ry,” he says.

“Sto­ries and mes­sages can quick­ly date if they are not giv­en a more uni­ver­sal per­ma­nence through in­te­gra­tion with that for­mal vi­su­al com­po­nent.”

Vis­i­tors to Hink­son’s up­com­ing ex­hi­bi­tion will en­counter va­ri­ety.

On the sur­face, the pieces range dra­mat­i­cal­ly in medi­um, scale, tone, and styl­is­tic ap­proach.

Yet for Hink­son, these di­verse ex­pres­sions are tied to­geth­er by a sin­gle, un­wa­ver­ing thread.

“In all of them, I have tried to fol­low the ba­sic prin­ci­ple of mean­ing­ful­ly in­ter­re­lat­ing sto­ry with for­mal com­po­si­tion—main­ly in­tu­itive­ly—to ar­rive at some­thing mov­ing,” Hink­son said.

“Re­gard­less of the style, mes­sage, medi­um, or size, I face this same ba­sic chal­lenge when do­ing them. To me, it’s the Same Kha­ki Pants.”

Meet the Artist

The ex­hi­bi­tion is from No­vem­ber 2 to 17 at Arn­im’s Art Gal­le­ria, Port-of-Spain. Art lovers and pa­trons will have a unique op­por­tu­ni­ty to en­gage di­rect­ly with Jack­ie Hink­son who will be present at the gallery on most af­ter­noons af­ter 3 pm.