Trinis get everywhere around the world and normally congregate around urban, metropolitan centres like London, New York or Toronto. So it's fascinating to see the reaction of locals when the diaspora breaks the mould and creates a presence in some of the world's less frenetic locations.From October 6-24, one Trini did just that by curating the Norman Rea Gallery's first exhibition of non-European artists in the historical town of York in the beautiful county of Yorkshire in the north of England.
Svetlana Leu, a second-year history of art student at the University of York, curated a show called 868 at the gallery, which exhibits both professional artists and students' work.Named after the T&T international dialling code, the show featured Maria Nunes, Zacques Morrison and Dylan Quesnel, all photographers from Trinidad.Nunes, from Diego Martin, showed Carnival themes with a traditional mas leaning, including timeless black and white stills of Bookman and Wild Indians and vivid, rich close-ups, capturing azure-blue painted and powdered Blue Devils.
One piece in particular, Jab I, is a remarkably reposed, peaceful portrait of a young man preparing himself for mas; a friend is daubing him in blue paint in a captivatingly calm contrast to the hissing wildness of the Carnival storm to come.
Morrison, formerly a photographer for Scorch magazine, is usually better known for his depictions of beautiful women in bikinis and the hedonism of fetes and cooler parties, but this show has given him an outlet for a more reflective, poignant side, including images of recording artists locked in a moment onstage or in the studio. A piece entitled Old Paintings, New Art, shows graffiti street art on the side walls of crumbling downtown buildings, overlooking vacant lots. The centre point of the mural by the spray-can artists appears to depict LeRoy Clarke, with his trademark African hat and beard, next to the words "Do you know art?"
Quesnel, the final artist, is young; he finished secondary school two years ago and is, in his own words, "just seeing my world through the glass of my lens."For the 868 show, Quesnel displayed his love of the idyllic rural countryside of the twin islands: dazzling sunsets, rustic colonial-era houses in dense forest, rivers and waterfalls, all captured with a sense of the majesty of nature.As is always the case with exhibiting Caribbean work in foreign places, there is the tricky negotiation between avoiding stereotyped images that conform to a pre-existing notion of "island life," while at the same time not backing away from what is the reality: there are waterfalls, beaches, flag-wavers and Carnival costumes but there are also ordinary people living ordinary lives, though they may seem quite extraordinary to the outsider.
Accurate representation combined with artistic flair, zeal and style is what any curator strives for, and Leu (who is connected with the Citizens for Conservation group) feels her debut show for Norman Rea achieved that balance."The opening night of 868 was a great success, packed from start to end with professors, students and even a few Trinis," Leu told the T&T Guardian. "The response to the works was an overwhelming desire to visit our country and intrigue at our traditional Carnival characters–images that were new to them. I'd like to thank the artists and I look forward to more opportunities, which will allow me to promote and preserve our unique cultural heritage overseas."