The past ten months have brought Ozy Merrique struggles and triumphs, leading up to his latest project, Silk Cotton–the Concept. Merrique is a rapso music pioneer as well as a painter; he's also a writer and has dabbled in film.
Behind the last apartment building on the right at 16 Darceuil Lane, Belmont, next to a huge silk cotton tree, sits Merrique's newly claimed home, studio, and showroom.
"I got kicked out of my last space, basically," said the artist in an interview with the Sunday Arts Section during a three-day open house at his new space. "I had a spot on Cipriani Boulevard that I was using as a store/studio–pretty small and on the frontline," he said.
In April, Merrique put out an SOS on his social media channels to save his space at Cipriani Boulevard, petitioning patrons, friends, and well-wishers for support purchasing work from his creative catalogue to assist with settling outstanding payments.
"It was a worthwhile experiment but what it taught me is that I prefer to have a more studio-oriented space as opposed to a frontline retail space. So, after that, I was really looking for a place to live and this space came into my frame of reference, a fixer-upper rental but to me it works as a living space, a working space, and a showing space."
He also admits to the allure of being next-door-neighbour to an ancient silk cotton tree. Merrique feels a connection to the spirit of the silk cotton tree, likening it to a place of power rooted in and proclaimed by the local oral tradition. In T&T folklore, spirits live in silk cotton trees (which are also known as kapoks or by the scientific name Ceiba pentandra).
"The science-fiction heads will tell you that the world has different portals," said Merrique, "whether the portals take you to the underworld or alternate universes. The saying is that there are certain junctions and lines on the earth that, when those things combine, create special places".
In his new studio, Merrique is surrounded by his mounted paintings. He has often been told that his artistic aesthetic is difficult to pinpoint due to his experimental techniques. His style has been described as everything from creative realism to abstract to surrealism. He enjoys hearing other people's interpretations of his work. "I'm kind of still exploring. Maybe I might lock a style, maybe not," he said.
"Even though I am doing more (painting) now, in my quiet moments I know that music is still first. I don't really feel the pressure of a person who has chosen fine art as their primary. I am still a bit playful where that is concerned."
Merrique said, "I think I am primarily a storyteller in whatever medium I use–although having so many muses is like having so many wives in a kind of way."
In setting out to do any creative project, Merrique relies both on the artistic need within himself to be expressed as well as the spirit of inspiration around him, which has made the move to his new studio especially gratifying for him. Merrique's first silk cotton manifestation was a painting.
"In November 2016, I had started something called the Silk Cotton Series without having sight of this place or even knowing that there was a silk cotton tree left in Port-of-Spain. I kind of put that on the shelf and started working on another project. Then: boom! I ended up getting this spot and I say, 'But wait! That is a silk cotton tree!'"
Silk Cotton will not remain solely expressed by paint alone. Merrique prefers to play within a creative eco-system surrounded by multiple tools used to express a single idea.
"Initially it started as a series of paintings, then I was writing stories–these heroic stories where the portal of a silk cotton tree opened up and was granting superpowers to modern people," he said.
"I had done some sketches of it, fleshing out the characters. It could be full multimedia but I think it's going to end up as full, proper, short stories."
Phone: 376-8629 (call/whatsapp/text); or follow Ozy Merrique: @galvanizeman @ozymerrique @galvantizetv
Janine Charles-Farray