ARTZPUB

ARTZPUB MINUTE: S2 EPISODE 3 JASMINE THOMAS-GIRVAN

2011-12-12T19:00:00.001-08:00

ARTZPUB MINUTE: S2 EPISODE 3 JASMINE THOMAS-GIRVAN from artzpubfilms on Vimeo.

ARTZPUB MINUTE: S2 EPISODE 2 SHERLANN PETERS

2011-12-12T16:54:00.001-08:00

ARTZPUB MINUTE: S2 EPISODE 2 SHERLANN PETERS from artzpubfilms on Vimeo.

ARTZPUB MINUTE: S2 EPISODE 1 SHEENA ROSE

2011-11-12T02:30:00.000-08:00

ARTZPUB MINUTE: S2 EPISODE 1 SHEENA ROSE from artzpubfilms on Vimeo.

ARTZPUB MINUTE: EPISODE 6 IVAEK ARCHER

2011-09-26T03:37:00.000-07:00

ARTZPUB MINUTE: EPISODE 6 IVAEK ARCHER from artzpubfilms on Vimeo.

EAW3 2011 SOE EDITION

2011-09-25T03:44:00.000-07:00

EAW3 2011 SOE EDITION from artzpubfilms on Vimeo.

ARTZPUB MINUTE: EPISODE 5 HOLLY BYNOE

2011-09-25T03:40:00.000-07:00

ARTZPUB MINUTE: EPISODE 5 HOLLY BYNOE from artzpubfilms on Vimeo.

ARTZPUB ONE MINUTE TV EPISODE 3 & 4

2011-09-20T04:23:00.000-07:00

ARTZPUB ONE MINUTE TV

2011-09-18T19:26:00.000-07:00

Artzpub Films is proud to present ARTZUB/Minute. A series of one minute video episodes covering pretty cool people doing pretty cool things in this pretty cool moment. It’s video content on the move. Enjoy.

Inward Hunger: the Story of Eric Williams by Mariel Brown

2011-09-17T13:57:00.001-07:00

Here's a short clip from the upcoming series, Inward Hunger: the Story of Eric Williams. Be watching TV4 on Republic day (Saturday September 24th) from 1:30pm, to see all three episodes back-to-back.

Charles Campbell- Actor/Transporter

2011-09-17T13:46:00.000-07:00

ACT 5 - final action, reception & discussion

Sunday September 18th at 6pm - Alice Yard
( 4 - 5.30 pm - actual performance investigation - Wild Flower Park, P.O.S.)

Charles Campbell is among a new generation of contemporary Caribbean artists working to explore and disrupt the region’s dominant social narratives. He has exhibited widely in North America, the Caribbean, and Europe, representing Jamaica in events such as the Havana
Biennial and the Brooklyn Museum’s Infinite Islands exhibition. His work uses images culled from the Caribbean's history of slavery and emancipation to investigate the intersection between meaning and image and open up the possibility of personal and social transformation. He holds an MA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths College and currently lives and works in Canada.
His recent work has investigated and re-imagined the traditional Actor Boy character from the Jamaican Jonkonnu festival, a trickster figure and “agent of chaos and change.” Campbell writes: “Rather than remaining the character from Belisario’s print, a character from the past, I envision him as a character from one of the possible futures that was alive at the time of emancipation and a sort of embodiment of the coexistence of multiple futures.”

Looking at the Rational Utopianism of Buckminster Fuller as one of these multiple futures, Campbell has begun to create a series of three-dimensional spheres, drawing on Fuller’s geodesic domes: vehicles for the transport and circulation of people, ideas, and images, which “simultaneously excite different ways to understand something we see.” Campbell’s participation in ACT 5 is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.
Act 5 project statement here
See previous event pictures here & video
All are invited.

Nicole Awai: Almost Undone

2011-07-29T17:07:00.000-07:00

Dates: Saturday, September 17th, 2011 – Saturday, October 29th, 2011

Location: 167 East 73rd Street, New York, NY 10021

Hours: Wednesday – Saturday, Noon – 6pm, or by appointment

Admission: Free

Opening: Friday, September 16th, 2011, 6pm – 9pm (RSVP required)

Press Contact: Anne Schruth; 212.472.2500/anne.schruth@vilcek.org

An artist finds her footing on liminal terrain

Nicole Awai unveils mixed-media installation at the Vilcek Foundation Gallery

Premiering September 17th at the Vilcek Foundation Gallery, in

New York City, is Almost Undone, a new installation by mixed-media artist Nicole Awai.

Featuring drawings from an earlier series by the Trinidadian native, entitled Specimens from

Local Ephemera, the drawings in this new exhibition will serve as visual anchors for emergent

pieces that seem to suspend, exude⎯even escape⎯their wall-bound origins, symbolizing the

transition of Ms. Awai’s work from one dimension into the next.

Local Ephemera, which began as a series of preparatory drawings for a sculpture Ms. Awai

presented at the 2003 Biennial of Ceramic in Contemporary Art in Italy, was later developed by

the artist into a stand-alone series of works. Occupying a liminal space, these drawings depict

various artifacts, both contemporary and historical, to reveal a world constantly in flux⎯the

world of in between and inside out. It’s a dynamic plane of shifting perception, but one framed

within a technical drawing format, thus lending it structure while weaving themes often found

in Ms. Awai’s other work⎯of duality, location, and cultural reprocessing.

In all her works, Ms. Awai draws upon multiple sources for inspiration⎯from popular media and

design to the history of art and a curiosity about the human migratory experience. Almost

Undone is no exception. In this new work, she incorporates materials as varied as cast and

sprayed paper, resin, plastic, nail polish, clay⎯even a telephone pole. The results are bold,

complex three-dimensional structures, which seem to pull, stretch, and tear from the wall, and

the memory of their two-dimensional predecessors.

Of Ms. Awai’s new installation, art historian Courtney J. Martin said, “Employing elements like nail varnish, and by crafting new surfaces, Nicole Awai’s works on paper and sculpture offer a fantastical, yet studied, take on the traditional mediums. This new body of work shows off her instinctual understanding of form and color, adding a thought provoking extension to her practice.”

Ms. Awai earned her Master’s Degree in Multimedia Art from the University of South Florida. She

now lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, and currently serves as Critic at the Yale School of

Art. Her work has been included in several seminal exhibitions, including the first Greater New

York: New Art in New York Now, at P.S. 1/MoMA (2000), the 2008 Busan Biennale in Korea,

Infinite Island: Contemporary Caribbean Art (2007), and Open House: Working in Brooklyn; the

latter two held at the Brooklyn Museum. Ms. Awai was also a featured artist in the 2005 I.P.O.

series at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

The Vilcek Foundation was established in 2000 by Jan and Marica Vilcek, immigrants from the

former Czechoslovakia. The mission of the Foundation, to honor the contributions of foreignborn

scholars and artists living in the United States, was inspired by the couple’s careers in

biomedical science and art history, respectively, as well as their personal experiences and

appreciation for the opportunities they received as newcomers to this country. The Foundation

hosts events to promote the work of immigrants, and awards annual prizes to prominent

immigrant biomedical scientists and artists who make outstanding contributions to American

society.

To learn more about the Vilcek Foundation, visit www.vilcek.org.

9 of 219 by Jamaican Artist Ebony G. Patterson in Alice Yard.

2011-07-26T13:20:00.000-07:00

Ebony G. upfront (Rodell Warner)

July 25th, 2011. Alice Yard, Port of Spain, Trinidad.

9 of 219 . This piece had all the fixings of a good ole fashioned wake: from flambeau to candle and a procession of 9 coffins around the portion of the Woodbrook block that is home to Alice Yard Contemporary Artspace and then some. Woodbrook was already abuzz for most the day before the 7pm performance-based work by Patterson.

Flambeau and candle

Woodbrook police station was reportedly inundated with calls from concerned neighbours about the goings on at Roberts Street. These “goings on” actually prompted an investigation by a party of officers who responded to calls about “somebody dragging around a coffin on Roberts street, whole day,” and even Port of Spain’s Mayor himself paid a visit, warning us about the Yard’s lack of proper procedure in procuring permission for the performance and that the performance should not by any means take place on the “street”.

Ebony G. and the popo

6 of 9 of 219 coffins Alice Yard, The Lower Annex

Not withstanding all of the various official “visits”, by 8pm it was clear that Patterson’s project was going to happen, and the faithful gathered to bear her representations of fallen brethren: nine cosquel dancehall/bling coffins marking the number of deaths that took place during a few days of Patterson’s residency in Alice Yard. (Patterson’s aesthetic choices in the work form part of her ongoing exploration of Jamaica’s dancehall culture and its grandiose love of bling and flam couture.) Patterson is the first of a number of Caribbean artists that will be visiting the Yard over the next few months to celebrate the art space’s fifth anniversary, entitled Act 5.

Ebony G. Patterson (Jamaica/U.S.A.), Entourage, 2010. Digital print. (courtesy the artist)

As the pallbearers (both men and women, an oddity in the Caribbean where pallbearers are typically men and noted by one onlooker as empowering for women within this context) traversed the Woodbrook streets accompanied by 3 Canal. Patterson and 3 Canal collaborated to create a dirge of culled newspaper recollections/musings of Patterson’s, fused with 3 Canal’s own Pitter Patter riddum. It soon became obvious to everyone, documenters, onlookers, pallbearers et al, that this work had more shared resonance than anyone could have imagined at the beginning of the experiment.

3 of 9 of 219 coffins, Alice Yard, The Box

The Procession clip (Artzpub Videos)

The Procession in Woodbrook

Ebony G. Patterson and Christopher Cozier

Artist Luis Vasquez on crime and Caracas

Patterson, in a later talk about her work, drew similarities to our murder rate and that of Jamaica’s, prompting a lively comparison of safety and securities/ insecurities in our Caribbean environment, and our perceptions of what safety and security really mean. One Venezuelan-born artist commented on the fact that coming from a city of 5000 murders a year with a population of 5 million, to Trinidad, where there’s a murder rate of “only” 300 a year, he felt a sense of safety and security that he clearly didn’t have in Venezuela. Patterson also noted how the work and its development entered into a type of political space that she hadn’t initially foreseen.

Kelvon was a people's person and plenty people liked him because he liked to give jokes. He liked to chant and give freestyles (rap chants). Everybody in the neighbourhood saying it was something that wasn't meant for him.- (Antoinette George on the death of her son Kelvon 16)

Thank you for this...

One member of the procession thanked Patterson for the opportunity to attach a self to the often faceless murders and people reported, to get the chance to know, even if briefly, or rather, have ownership for and a bond maybe, with this representation of a person that on a regular day we may actually avoid, by ducking a newspaper or a crime reportage because we may have had enough. The ‘work’ discussions prompted more side discussions and branches to the exploratory tree than can be mentioned here. However, these are a few: males, the masculinity of crime, our acceptance or desensitization to murder due in part to violence in the media, You Tube etc, the disposal of the dead and what it means, superstitions and beliefs about funerals and their social importance, and so much more.

Some of Patterson’s work has left me speechless, just by its sheer magnificence. 9 of 219 is one of them.

Artists Ebony G., Ashraph and Darren Cheewah (pix by Rodell Warner)

9 of 219: Ebony G. Patterson’s new work at Alice Yard

2011-07-22T08:58:00.000-07:00

There are nine coffins in Alice yard. One of them is coated in sparkly blue glitter; one of them is wrapped in gold lace and red plastic doilies, dotted here and there with diamantes. This is new work by Jamaican artist, Ebony G Patterson.

Patterson has been in Trinidad for nearly two weeks on an Alice Yard artist residency. This body of work, called 9 of 219, literally describes the number of murders that happened in Trinidad during a few days of her time here. It also continues her examination of Jamaican dancehall culture. In this case, the coffins form part of her interpretation of a “Bling Funeral”, in which, as she explains, Jamaicans from inner city communities wear dancehall fashion and bling to funerals.

We’re inviting everyone to come and see the work at Alice Yard (80 Roberts Street) on Monday, July 25th at 7pm. The night will begin with a candlelight vigil, so walk with your candles!

About Ebony G.:

Born a native of Kingston , Jamaica in 1981,Ebony G. Patterson graduated from the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts in 2004, where she received an Honors Diploma in Painting and from Sam Fox College of Art and Design at the Washington University in St. Louis in 2006, with a Masters in Fine Arts in Printmaking and Drawing.

The artist has participated in several group exhibitions in Jamaica and abroad since 2001, her most recent recent exhibits include:, The National Biennial 2008 and 2010, Kingston, Jamaica, Infinite Island: Contemporary Caribbean Art, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY, 2007, Curated by Tumelo Mosaka, Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art Brooklyn Museum, Curator’s Eye III: Ceremony in Space, Time and Sound, National Gallery of Jamaica, Kingston, Jamaica,2008, curated by Keith Morrison, Boys of Summer, Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago, Illinois, 2008, Art on Paper 2008, Weatherspoon Art Museum, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro ,North Carolina, 2008, New Blue Emerging- First Kentucky Art Biennial, Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, Louisville, KY,2008,NEXT: The Invitational Exhibition of Emerging Art , Merchandise Mart Chicago , IL, 2008, Looky See, Summer Drawing Exhibit, Otis College of Art , Los Angeles California,2008, Rockstone and Bootheel :Contemporary West Indian Art, Real Artways Hartford, CT, The Ghetto Biennale, Grand- Rue, Port- Au –Prince, Haiti 2009, Young Talent V, National Gallery of Jamaica , Kingston , Jamaica, 2010,curated by Dr. David Boxer and Veerle Poupeye, Shot in Jamaica, Alice Yard, Port- of- Spain , Trinidad, 2010, curated by Christopher Cozier and O’Neil Lawrence and You are here/Vous êtes ici/ Usted esta aqui, The Foundation Clemente, La Francais, Martinique,2010,Gully Godz in Conversations, Monique Meloche Gallery( On the Wall Project ), Chicago, IL ,curator Tumelo Mosaka 2011

About Alice Yard:

This was once the house of Sean Leonard’s great-grandmother. Four generations of children played and imagined in this yard, and now we continue this tradition. Alice Yard is a space for creative experiment, collaboration, and improvisation.

Alice Yard is administered and curated by architect Sean Leonard, artist Christopher Cozier, writer and editor Nicholas Laughlin, and musician Sheldon Holder, with the help of a growing network of creative collaborators.

http://aliceyard.blogspot.com/

DRACONIAN SWITCH ISSUE 16

2011-07-05T19:37:00.000-07:00

Curated by Lowery Sims and Leslie King Hammond The GLOBAL AFRICA PROJECT is an unprecedented exhibition exploring the broad spectrum of contemporary African art, design, and craft worldwide, The Global Africa Project premiered at the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in November 2010 and closed in May 2011. Featuring the work over 100 artists working in Africa, Europe, Asia, the United States, and the Caribbean, The Global Africa Project surveyed the rich pool of new talent emerging from the African continent and its influence on artists around the world.

download your copy of the issue here:

http://www.artzpub.com/content/draconian-switch/issue-16

TORTURE & PLEASURE

2011-07-04T12:43:00.000-07:00

courtesy TNT REVIEW

By AKINDELE HICKLING

Twin chairs when yuh want to sit in ah circle and get out of here.

“Is it really that good down there?” a beautiful stranger and her friend asked in passing, as I sat four inches above the ground on an expansive slab of installation furniture designed by artist cum furniture designer, Dean Arlen. “Actually, it is… and you are welcome to join me; in fact I think it was designed that way.” I replied with a relaxed smile and a delayed understanding that innuendo was suggested, having never been implied.
That experience summarizes the distilled essence of the AlterEgo Project; a collection of teak, mahogany and deceptively hewn, metal-accentuated furniture, currently on exhibition in the lobby of Scrip-J, at the Fernandez Industrial Complex.
The pieces of furniture by Arlen are subversive information-objects with a greater sense of their own understated complexity and much more refinement than one would normally expect to find in simple conversation pieces.

Valerie Taylor in serene surrender. —Photo: AKINDELE HICKLING

The root of the expression itself appears to be discourse. Rooted in this exploration are questions that include but are not limited to: what’s the appropriate angle for comfortable engagement in the act of eating a meal? Or lounging, over drinks, while liming with friends? And do these activities necessarily involve a table at all? These and other post-modern constructs root the AlterEgo Project squarely in this, our Caribbean context.
At first glance the seating objects appear to be a series of rough and unrefined throwbacks to medieval torture apparatus that one would expect to find amidst Gregorian chanting and steamy, sweaty, sessions of somewhat Spanish Inquisition. Yet surprisingly, on engaging with these objects, one is instantly converted from distant notions of the divine. The work presented is shocking and inviting and inexorably pragmatic.

They had supper on a ledge front view.

EXPERIENCE
If there was to be a thesis put forward on the Caribbean cultural experience of furniture, the AlterEgo Project would certainly be a contender; it looks like nothing you have experienced and feels like nothing you want to forget. Unabashed and unwavering, with subtlety and sinew in each gentle caress, effortlessly each piece reveals itself to you; thrusting upon you as a deeper understanding of your own proclivities.
The AlterEgo Project has as its premise, contradiction. On the outset the furniture appears to be stark and disproportionate, acute and unrefined, with defiant angles projecting into space, as if to impale predetermined notions on the flank of the collective subconscious. The feeling of the slippery surfaces, on the contrary, is somewhat disavowed of such solemn notions as the innovative hardwood furniture brings to bear a crashing juxtaposition of disparate propositions: the veritable hot-bed (or seat) of discourse and interaction.

ERGONOMICS
Without a single curve in sight, the obtuse angles tend either toward a hundred and twenty degrees or punctuate at right angles, with a chiseled hammertoe, in the case of “Back up Yu Backing”. Elongated and equipped for the fight, defiant and irregular, one would instantly approach these pieces with a sense of trepidation.
Arlen himself stated that during the development process, strong conversations emerged, wherein fundamental lines were drawn regarding the concept and requisite notions of ergonomics and comfort. The chairs simply look deathly uncomfortable; yet once you experience them, you cannot really look at other chairs in quite the same way.
The low-to-the-ground reclining position, of “Deck Me, Deck Dem” and the comparable “A Funny Looking Aztec Thing”, is infused with post-modern expressions of Caribbean posturing. “The angles, the ergonomics… notions of interaction, of lounging…” Arlen articulated some of the ways in which the pieces of furniture in the AlterEgo Project were specifically designed to “make political statements about the expectations of dining and of social interaction.”
The reinterpretation of coffee-table armchairs—“When Yu Want To Sit in Ah Circle An Get out of Here”—connect the shoulder-line of the deeply seated patron in a natural and gently sweeping arc, veering gracefully towards the wrist in a relaxed yet somewhat aggressive posture; instead of the neatly tucked elbows one would expect to find in otherwise diplomatic, polite-conversations on the molded plastic forebear, adorning the adjacent conference room facilities of the gracious exhibition hosts. The stark reality of our existence has rarely before come so clearly into focus.
One could almost expect to find the iconoclastic pieces from the AlterEgo Project in the lobbies of Ian Schrager upmarket resorts in bustling urban centers, adorned by intermingling cosmopolitan jet-setters; or in bleeding edge museums of contemporary modern art in Paris, Barcelona, New York or LA.

Keri McLennon gets down to work. —Photo: AKINDELE HICKLING

ASSEMBLAGE
Arlen describes the works, assembled in collaboration with Richard Taylor and David Blake, as inspired by Japanese aesthetics and sensibilities: interlocking and democratic. The joints are all composed without a single nail or screw, and wherever a screw presents, it is a textured appliqué used to underplay the sophistication of the finished joinery. Even the pieces of furniture that appear to be rough and unrefined are all smoothly sanded with no perceivable flaws.
Completing this masking effect of intrigue and “mis-under-estimation”, the spot-welded metal finish joints are also smooth to the touch and free of imperfection. They present to the unsuspecting public, the appearance of the anticipated standard of poor workmanship. The detailing and joinery, from assembly to finish, were thoughtfully considered and impeccably applied.
“Mas, ah see yu!”

COMMENTARY
In passing, a few of the patrons at the launch of the exhibition, first expressed perplexity and dis-interest in engaging with the seemingly foreign objects; stating generally that the pieces looked heavy, inarticulate and somewhat unrefined.
As the evening progressed, other patrons commented that although the furniture was engaging, the venue restricted the full appreciation of such expressive objects. Presented from this perspective, it is easy to understand that one may find it difficult to get a full appreciation of the AlterEgo Project without simply sitting down to experience the distinct works in the series.
Most intriguing to experience and observe were the experiences between the patrons and the objects themselves; invariably the response would be… “Oh Goooooood… this is lovely… the good part is the sliding in… This is nice boy!” followed more often than not by “Dean, you are a genius boy!”
Consistently, the intrigue and trepidation was dispelled by the first experience of the salubrious surfaces. Cautiously and gently, “I just have to slide into it… “ returned a nervous and particularly attractive young lady, rendered speechless by the experience… accentuated only by “oh woooooow!”
And then along came a noteworthy designer, clearly presenting a widely held position on the quizzical “Deck Me, Deck Dem” by stating simply: “Oh no! At 46 and fabulous, we don’t go that low.” Within a few minutes however, he too was a convert. On emerging from the experience, a Freudian slip put the experience clearly into perspective: It looks conceiving… I mean deceiving.
The overarching response from those who experienced the AlterEgo Project was that the pieces of furniture were each in their own unique ways, “all surprisingly comfortable”. The AlterEgo Project is a refreshing alternative to customarily feigned highbrow social commentary. It gets you where it counts: in your imagination.
Towards the end of the evening, an older, much more conservative lady was overheard remarking, quite in passing, “this is built with men in mind;” a reference made to the aptly titled, asymmetrically composed “When Ah Want to Skin Up and Let De Breez Cool Dem Dong”.

FINAL WORDS
The key to understanding the objects, Arlen concluded, was evident in the observation of a child in the distance exploring the deep inner recesses of his imagination in interactions with the pieces: “If he plays long enough, to him it can become a spaceship;” a statement in part that underscores the significance of liberating one’s own perspectives to engage in renewable discourse.
Arlen outlined initiatives for a continuation of the discourse with artists and artisans across the twin island Republic, and presents the AlterEgo Project as a successful case study in a series of wider initiatives to engage with communities-like one such in Aripo-carving out innovative models for creative and cultural industries development and authentic social engagement across the society at the intra-community level: encouraging the making of objects in keeping with our identity, presence and experience.
If the Alter Ego Project is any indication of design capabilities emerging from this, our Caribbean, then imported notions of design excellence may have quite a bit to contend with in the wake of this phenomenal display.
The core capabilities that identify Trinidad and Tobago as a design epicenter of the Caribbean have presented themselves most auspiciously with Dean Arlen’s AlterEgo Project.
The ultimate goal emerging from the AlterEgo Project and related initiatives by Arlen, is to establish community-based Design Labs to fuel the creative capacity of grassroots innovators, most commonly referred to in the work of Lloyd Best as “maroon firms”.
The question most readily asked by Arlen through the AlterEgo Project-once you get past the shock factor and high-value design proposition is-how can community-based grassroots-design- nitiatives, similar to and including the AlterEgo Project, be brought to the fore of national and regional agendas, as priorities at the cornerstone of sustainable social and economic development?

GOTCHA AT ALICE YARD June 23 and 24th

2011-06-18T18:36:00.000-07:00

‘Gotcha’ can be considered a three part examination of us. It continues my look at the shape of our Trinidad ‘politrix’ in the age of KAMALOT – the state of the Trinidad and Tobago under Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar – from a perspective that observes the festering anger of a new class of dissenters. We like to think that ‘tyre burning’ is relegated to one class of people in society, but the thing that fuels tyre burning as a tool of dissent, is in all of us. It’s just bubbling under the surface.

The show consists of a series of 30 paintings, some of which are of characters with over exaggerated lips and eyes representing our ‘watching and silent waiting and bubbling’ for something to happen. There is also an examination through a hand screen-printed print collaboration with artist Suzanne Nunez as well as buttons of the ubiquitous and lasting element of our Trinidad and Tobago culture, our picong, the ‘Megee’: the ‘five fingered fart’, the ‘fowl bottom’, that fools you again and again (coincidentally it ties in with other work in the show, symbolising our five party coalition government, the People’s Partnership). Rounding it all up is a Monograph featuring an introduction by artist/ designer Adele Todd, a Megee musing by writer Tracy Hutchings, an essay on art and politics by Andre Bagoo and a number of new and on going design explorations on our age of KAMALOT and our unresolved NAPA ‘tabanca’

GOTCHA MONOGRAPH

The show runs for two nights at Alice Yard, Thursday 23^rd and Friday 24^th June from 7pm. The second night will include a choreographed performance by dancer /choreographer Dave Williams. All works are of course for sale and at an affordable range of prices. The show is open to everyone and their friends!

RMR2011

DEM AND US 1&2

Megee print artist proof

Megee Buttons

PORTRAIT ARTIST BY SEON THOMPSON

2011-06-01T07:36:00.001-07:00

Portrait Artist - 1D Project from Seon on Vimeo.

FUGITIVE VISION

2011-05-27T13:59:00.000-07:00

Image: Christopher Cozier, Development,

2003, 60” x 60,” ink, acrylic and charcoal on paper.

On view: June 9th – July 23, 2011

Opening Reception: June 9th, 6-8pm

Also on view: William Kentridge: Recent Linocuts

David Krut Projects is pleased to present Fugitive Vision, a group exhibition of works by Christiane Baumgartner, Christopher Cozier, Joseph Hart, Whitney McVeigh, Ryan and Trevor Oakes, Phil Sanders, Sara Sanders, and Mary Wafer.

The human eye continuously absorbs and categorizes an endless flow of visual information, encountering, simultaneously and unconsciously, objects in one’s path. We process this visual overload of masses, materials, and actions by forming connections between the external and ourselves. Our vision is always shifting, because the visible — as the Impressionists understood, and the Cubists later expanded upon — is by nature, fugitive, and cannot be understood from a fixed perspective. The works in this exhibition explore the frameworks that surround and influence this subjective vision. Highlighting the interplay between sight and site, “Fugitive Vision” investigates the relationship between visual modes of perception and representation.

Christiane Baumgartner’s new series of drawings explores nuance in color and line. Operating as optical marks that remain in motion without a fixed form, these drawings suggest presence despite the absence of a stable image. Departing from photographic references found in Baumgartner’s well-known woodcuts, these drawings investigate lines in-between sight and representation, offering an image in transition.

Christopher Cozier explores the confrontation between the sight of one’s body and the stratification of self, revealing embedded, prescribed notions of identity and masculinity. As a symbol of success and division, the rostrum appears in his drawings, in various configurations, exposing the hierarchy of cultural identity as a production of a game or contest. Unoccupied, the symbol of the rostrum becomes an uninhabitable platform that pervades the pictorial space, questioning the commensurability between culturally-coded sight and a predetermined place.

Joseph Hart, whose general oeuvre investigates the visual presentation of artworks within institutional contexts, here explores the visual construction of line itself. Using a heavy, active layer of graphite to render the space around the line, he inverses the negative space to positive. Emphasizing this area surrounding line, Hart reveals the unseen structure that establishes and grounds a visual mark.

Whitney McVeigh utilizes improvisational lines to explore the relationship between mark and image, allowing subjective perception to engage with her automatic gestures. Ryan and Trevor Oakes’s drawings use geometrical metaphors of line and shape to render the anatomy of bioptic vision, depicting landscapes of human sight. Sara Sanders, in her multiple-color photo-lithograph, activates the seat of an unoccupied, antique chair to act as a screen, evoking an instilled presence despite a physical absence. Mary Wafer’s prints reference the structure of the Abbottabad compound, using an architectural site as a substitute for an embedded portrait, while Phil Sanders employs site and place to investigate the inserted gaze of the explorer who redefines landscape as frontier.

Please contact Genevieve Lowe, Hannah Dumes or Kristyna Comer for more information.

Image: Christopher Cozier, Development, 2003, 60” x 60,” ink, acrylic and charcoal on paper.

David Krut Projects 526 W. 26^th St. #816, New York, New York, 10001; 212.255.3094; info@davidkrut.com, www.davidkrut.com

ARC MAGAZINE LAUNCHES AT ALICE YARD

2011-04-27T11:12:00.000-07:00

Image by Brianna McCarthy

Wednesday 27 April, 2011, at 7 pm
In partnership with the Bocas Lit Fest

Launched in January 2011 by artists Holly Bynoe and Nadia Huggins of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, ARC is “a Caribbean art and culture magazine dedicated to highlighting emerging and established artists.”

Alice Yard is pleased to host the Trinidad launch of ARC on Wednesday 27 April, from 7 to 9 pm. The programme includes an exhibition of works by artists featured in the magazine and spoken word performances. Both editors will be present, and copies of the second issue of ARC, fresh off the press, will be available for sale. This event is part of the 2011 Bocas Lit Fest, the first annual Trinidad and Tobago Literary Festival.

All are invited.

Read an interview with Bynoe and Huggins published at Antilles, theCaribbean Review of Books blog, in January 2011.

See the full programme of events for the 2011 Bocas Lit Fest here.

AFTER JAZZ FRINGE IN TOBAGO

2011-04-18T02:52:00.000-07:00

The After Jazz Fringe Fest©

Kin Sound System | Sheldon Holder of 12 The Band | Gyazette | The Cabezon | Ukü | the On-Da-Grong band | LAZA beam | DJ Tillah Willah | DJ Rawkus | DJ Marcus | & More...

Thursday 28th April to Sunday 1st May 2011

@ Shakers Tobago
Shirvan Road,
Tobago, W.I.

The best of T&T's underground are LIVE at The After Jazz Fringe Fest in Shakers Tobago!

For further information:

Send emails to - thefringers@gmail.com

Or call the hotlines - 748-8099 | 398-6001 | 355-7020

-------------------------------

Thursday 28th April:
The Overture featuring the On-Da-Grong band & The Cabezon LIVE!
Admission - $40.00

Friday 29th April:
Sound and Symphony featuring KIN Sound System & Gyazette LIVE!
Admission - $60.00

Saturday 30th April:
Pieces! Featuring Sheldon Holder of 12 The Band & LAZA Beam
LIVE!
Admission - $60.00

Sunday 1st May:
Bringing it Home - The Community Jam Session featuring Ukü LIVE!
Admission - $40.00

-------------------------------

Brought to you by:

The Fringe Movement in association with Banrock Station -

The Official Wine, Bols Liqueur, El Jimador Tequila, T

he Alice Yard & Shakers Tobago.

Enjoy the Jazz...Let loose at the Fringe!

Silence/Silencio

2011-04-10T05:35:00.000-07:00

This is a short improvised performance by Michelle Isava, Eliseo Solís Mora and Rodell Warner at Territorio Desdibujado 2.0 (Blurred Territory 2.0), curated by Solís Mora, as part of the 11th Velada De Santa Lucia in Maracaibo, Venezuela.

What ended up happening reflected conversations we'd had in the days before about difficulty/failure communicating across language barriers and about forcing one's culture/solutions onto others - both these themes derived from our collective experiences travelling and encountering these things in our interactions.

read it all here: http://freepaperblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/silenciosilence.html

view the performance here:

Silencio/Silence from Rodell Warner on Vimeo.

STREETFEST TODAY AT 2pm

2011-04-09T08:39:00.000-07:00

CHEEWAH TRYS TO PAINT OVER THE OLD ICE FACTORY

2011-03-03T13:58:00.000-08:00

Click here to see it on FACEBOOK

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=24600&id=100001743636286&fbid=133284916739629

ONE TALKS- MAKE HAPN and he preach. Listen Up.

2011-02-27T05:37:00.000-08:00

DIPLO KICKING IT AT SHOW AND TELL. This Thursday.

2011-02-19T06:23:00.000-08:00

Internationally recognised and Grammy nominated DJ/producer, Diplo (Major Lazer-Mad Decent) will be stopping by to share with us his film Favela on Blast—a film that he directed with Leandro HBL in Rio de Janerio, Brazil. Following the screening, Diplo will speak about his work, himself as an artist and the expression of music and art through film.

Then the afterparty kicks in…Diplo will treat us to a special DJ set along with several others including the Amateurs and Jillionaire.

read it all here: http://us1.campaign-archive1.com/?u=4cbd6a86c1bf9a35bc47793aa&id=423a9805a3

MAKING SPACE FOR THE ART TO GROW

2011-02-07T09:06:00.000-08:00

by DAVID CAVE

T&T Review. February 7, 2011.

So many of his predecessors have tried and failed, but artist Dean Arlen arrives at this moment undaunted, fully prepared to take the fight forward. His mission: to create a sustainable critical forum where artists and art aficionados are able to seriously discuss the role of Art in Trinidad and Tobago.

read it all here: http://www.tntreview.com/2011/02/06/making-space-for-art-to-grow/

inside jtography - Coast2Coast 2010

2011-02-07T06:43:00.000-08:00

Ever wonder what it takes to shoot the race? This is one of the most poignant, soulful videos you’ll see from the “inside jtography” updates.

Check out JTOGRAPHY here- http://jtography.com/jtography/home.html

PM THEATRE PROJECT HOLDS AUDIENCE with RANSOME

2011-02-07T05:50:00.000-08:00

http://www.guardian.co.tt/entertainment/2011/02/07/pm-theatre-project-holds-audience-ransome

Maygn Wells, left, and Elisha Efua Bartels perform Cross the Line, choreographed by Sonja Dumas. Photo: Gillian Moore

Live, experimental theatre and dance, just off the Ariapita Avenue strip—at a rate of $1.50 per minute. That was what the PM Theatre Project offered in its first three-day run, from January 27-29. The initiative by dancer and choreographer Dave Williams debuted with Ransome, at 33 Murray Street in Woodbrook, staging five engaging short pieces before modest audiences. Williams said the new space “allows audiences to encounter works that might have otherwise remained as just ideas in the heads of performing artists. The project presents a platform to begin exploring new performance ideas in dance, drama, films and music or any combination, with live audiences,” with shows being presented every month-end.

WHAT MINGI WANTS

2011-02-06T17:03:00.000-08:00

mingi wants is a website boutique for those looking for fun, quality and diverse objects. The collection is selected by Mingi, an artist who grew up in Los Angeles now living in Trinidad. As the name implies all the objects on the website are something that Mingi would love to have as her own. Some words that describe Mingi's style are fun, colourful, thoughtful, exciting, humorous, smart. Almost all objects are one-of-a-kind and Mingi is committed to featuring the best price possible.

check it out here; http://mingiwants.com

DAVE WILLIAMS PM THEATRE PRESENTS...

2011-01-25T16:18:00.000-08:00

PM Theatre allows audiences to encounter works that might have otherwise remained as just ideas in the heads of performing artists. The Project presents a platform to begin exploring new performance ideas in dance, drama, films and music or any comination with live audiences. Audiences also get to pay by the minute. If they leave a performance before it is complete, they can get their money back for the remaining minutes of the show in the form of a credit for future shows. The venue is 33 Murray Street, just off the avenue. The Project also brings the missing element of performance and entertainment to the Avenue.

The first show Jan Thur 27th to Sat 29th is RansomE featuring daramatic, choreographic, and audio/visual explorations by:
sonja dumas • tracy hutchings • darren chee wah & dave williams
performed by a number of performance, video and sound practitioners.

Search "PM Theatre" on facebook.

Help break boundaries.

WRESTLING WITH THE IMAGE eCATALOG

2011-01-25T02:55:00.000-08:00

Wrestling with the Image: Caribbean Interventions, an exhibition of contemporary art from twelve Caribbean countries. Featuring work by artists from the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago, the exhibition is curated by artist and curator Christopher Cozier and art historian Tatiana Flores.

Published in conjunction with the Art Museum of the Americas, The Organization of American States and Draconian Switch, 'Wrestling With the Image', is the Official Catalogue of the exhibition opened on January 21st and running through to May 10th 2011 at the Museum of the Americas, Washington. This 108 page downloadable catalogue designed by Richard Mark Rawlins, features the artists works, and essays by Cozier and Flores.

Click link below to download.

wwtig.pd f

Check out a website listing for artists in the show:

Ewan Atkinson:

http://www.ewanatkinson.com/

La Vaughn Belle:

http://www.lavaughnbelle.com/

Lillian Blades:

http://www.lillianblades.com/

Terry Boddie:

http://www.terryboddie.com

Holly Bynoe:

http://hollybynoe.com/

Santiago Cal:

http://www.santiagocal.com/

Charles Campbell:

http://www.charlescampbellart.com/

John Cox:

http://www.iamjohncox.com/

Blue Curry:

www.bluecurry.com/

Jean-Ulrick Désert:

http://www.jeanulrickdesert.com/

Richard Fung:

http://www.richardfung.ca/

Joscelyn Gardner:

http://www.joscelyngardner.com/

Marlon Griffith:

http://marlongriffith.blogspot.com/

Nadia Huggins:

http://www.nadiahuggins.com/

Marlon James:

http://mjamestudio.com/

Patricia Kaersenhout:

http://www.kaersenhout.com/

Roshini Kempadoo:

http://www.roshinikempadoo.co.uk/

Hew Locke:

http://www.hewlocke.net/

Jamie Lee Loy:

http://jaimeleeloy.blogspot.com/

Pauline Marcelle:

http://www.paulinemarcelle.com/

Kishan Munroe:

http://www.kishanmunroe.com/

Nikolai Noel:

http://nikolainoelprojects.blogspot.com/

Ebony G. Patterson:

http://artitup.zoomshare.com/

Oneika Russell:

http://oneikarussell.net/

Heino Schmid:

http://heinoschmid.com/

Rodell Warner:

http://www.rodellwarner.com/

Tonya Wiles:

http://www.tonyawiles.com/

KFC CARNIVAL 2011 FOOD FOR THE ROAD

2011-01-16T15:43:00.000-08:00

Client: Prestige Holdings Limited. Produced by Collier Morrison and Belgrave Advertising Limited. dps: Kerry Gibbon and Mark Loregnard, Advance Dynamics Limited. ed: Judes Gomes-Dell, ADL. cws: Melissa Doughty and Mark White, CMB. tv pro: Stacy Phillips, CMB. astv pro: Jamila Moonsammy, CMB. cd: Richard Mark Rawlins, CMB. Audio: Richard Ahong aka Charsu. Jingle Bed: Terry Lyons and Swappi. ads: Marilyn Morrison, David Pang. Team CMB: Antron Forte, Nolan Nexar, and Karin Simmonds. Running time 45 seconds. Made in T&T.

Mobile Portrait Studio, ALICE YARD on NOW!!!

2011-01-14T12:28:00.000-08:00

Mobile Portrait Studio, a project by Lara Stein Pardo, considers people, public spaces, performance, and personal interaction in relationship to the role of portraiture, art-making, memory, and historical narratives. Mobile Portrait Studio ran in two locations inMiami in December 2010. The Port of Spain version is a collaboration between Stein Pardo and Rodell Warner.

On 11 January, 2011, Stein Pardo and Warner made a series of portraits of passersby on Ariapita Avenue in Woodbrook. In the second stage of their collaboration, they will operate the Mobile Portrait Studio at Alice Yard on Friday 14 January from 7.30 pm. Volunteer participants can have their portraits taken and will receive a free print. The images will be digitally preserved as part of a larger series of artworks.

Stein Pardo and Warner will also screen the portraits taken on 11 January, and engage in a conversation about the project, their other recent work, and their interest in portraiture.

All are invited.

About the artists:

Lara Stein Pardo is an artist and PhD candidate in sociocultural anthropology at the University of Michigan. She is currently a visiting researcher in the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Miami and artist-in-residence at the Deering Estate in Cutler Bay. Her artwork, research, and writing revolve around place, gender, race, ethnicity, art, and artistic practice in the US and the Caribbean. She works in the medium of photography, installation, performance, and short film.

Rodell Warner is an artist and designer. His recent work includes the interactive installation Photobooth during Erotic Art Week 2009 and 2010, and the ongoing portrait series Closer. Other work in progress is documented at his blog, Free Paper. He is a member of Alice Yard’s network of creative collaborators.

WOW BLOG BRIANNA McCARTHY's PASSION FRUIT

2011-01-13T17:18:00.000-08:00

I had to go slowly with Bri anna McCarthy and not for the rea sons she may think.

I’ve had my eye on her. She’s been grac ing my work desk top on and off for the bet ter part of 2010. In fact, she is a very preg nant part of my vision board. If there wasn’t a mir ror nearby, then I could look at Bri anna McCarthy’s work, tiled as if she just knew the col ors that would inspire me to life, love and laugh ter and we just became fast friends.She saw me first, and its one of those moments where you’re think ing ok, I have this mag a zine and you want peo ple to say what they think and some times they do, but most times they don’t and then out of the blue you get a sim ple “I dig your site.”

No pre am ble, no awk ward ness, no long good bye. Just a dig—and a good one. And it’s not a friend, it’s some one who doesn’t have to be sweet to you or on you haha. So, of course you check out this person’s site, and then you see your desktop back ground that you first saw and saved from LeCoil and you have your moment and then you wait a week to respond, because you’re already crush ing the artist too much to breathe.

So yeah, for as long as Bri anna McCarthy’s been dig ging me, I’ve been dig ging her and then some and I wanted more. I needed to finesse my approach. You just have to under stand this is the one you want to invite inside your liv ing space and co-habitate. And yes of course hang her art on your wall—mantle-worthy as it is.

I find it very hard to play favorites. So just a small sampling…

read it all here

http://dasheenmagazine.com/wow-blog-brianna-mccarthys-passion-fruit/

Welcome to a brighter place. Inglefield/Ogilvy & Mather Caribbean and Abovegroup merge.

2011-01-13T04:34:00.000-08:00

Abovegroup, the region’s leading branding consultancy and Inglefield/Ogilvy & Mather Caribbean, a long-standing pillar of advertising and media services in the region, are pleased to announce that as of today, 11.1.11, they have merged to form a new offering, Abovegroup Ogilvy.

This represents a seismic shift in the local creative industries. Abovegroup Ogilvy brings together two distinct but complementary groups of skills and experience - offering the most comprehensive range of services available under one roof anywhere in the Caribbean. From branded entertainment, branding, advertising, digital, strategy, PR, traditional and guerrilla marketing to media management by the globally recognised industry leader, Mindshare.

More than that, Abovegroup Ogilvy will revolutionise the way the agency business is done. Positioning ourselves as Brand Engineers, there are going to be a lot of firsts. The first truly full-service communications company in the country. The first in the country to have a dedicated Strategy & Planning department. The first with a tightly integrated in-house digital team. The first to have an environmental policy, which includes dedicating 5% of annual resources to improving the social and physical environments in Trinidad and Tobago and beyond. The first carbon-neutral company in the country by the end of 2011. The first to offer branded entertainment. The first to publish free white papers on trends and changes in the region, developed by our in-house strategy team.

This will be backed by having the best and most creative minds in the industry, access to global networks and a solid understanding of the local corporate, consumer goods and youth markets.

“Our mission as a company is simple - to make the world a brighter place”, says Director Tony Inglefield. “We mean it, and we’re going to do it in a way that benefits everyone - our clients, their customers, the public, the countries in which we operate, our peers and ourselves. People are tired of the old way of doing things. There is no point pretending that nothing has changed when everything has and is already busy changing again. Of course there will be some who prefer the status quo. For everyone else, let’s get started.”

Fellow directors in Abovegroup Ogilvy include Russ Jarman Price, Alex Smailes and Gareth Jenkins.

Founded in 2005, Abovegroup is the leading branding consultancy in the region, offering branding and identity, graphic design, photography, digital development and guerrilla marketing services. In addition, Abovegroup is actively involved in the local creative industry, and hosts monthly creative talks at its popular Show & Tell series. Clients include Atlantic, The Beacon, The Carlton Savannah and the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival.

Inglefield/Ogilvy and Mather Caribbean was born in 1993, and hasn't looked back since. As an affiliate of the Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, IOM combines both experience and diversity to create a tailored approach to each creative project. IOM is affiliated with a range of agencies throughout the Caribbean providing a full range of services to our local, regional and international clients. Clients include Coca-Cola, Unilever, Nestlé, Kimberly-Clark, Carib Brewery, Digicel, Caribbean Airlines, International Committee of the Red Cross and ABIL.

Ogilvy & Mather is one of the largest marketing communications companies in the world. Through its specialty units, the company provides a comprehensive range of marketing services including: advertising; public relations and public affairs; branding and identity; shopper and retail marketing; healthcare communications; direct, digital, promotion and relationship marketing. Ogilvy & Mather services Fortune Global 500 companies as well as local businesses through its network of more than 450 offices in 120 countries.

Mindshare is a global media and marketing services company. The Mindshare global network consists of approximately 6,000 employees across 115 offices in 82 countries throughout North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific.

For more information, please contact: Gareth Jenkins at gareth.jenkins@abovegroupogilvy.com or Anthony Inglefield at anthony.inglefield@abovegroupogilvy.com

Q & A with filmmaker Dalton Narine by Darryn Boodan

2011-01-07T17:04:00.000-08:00

He has written for The Village Voice, been the Features editor at Ebony, as well as The Miami Herald. He is a decorated Vietnam veteran and has won awards for his writing on post-traumatic stress disorder.

Somewhere in between all of this, Dalton Narine has also managed to make an astounding 14 films, all set in Trinidad and Tobago, making him one of the most high-profile filmmakers in the Caribbean. His latest feature ‘Mas Man Peter Minshall’, which chronicles the life and work of Peter Minshall, won Best Documentary at the New York International Film Festival in 2010.

Here is a conversation I recently had with Dalton, in which he talks about what it was like working with Peter Minshall, and why the word ‘documentary’ can be tricky when you are looking for funding.

Check out a preview of 'Mas Man' below and look out for the movie now on Flow on Demand

You spent five years working on ‘Mas Man’. What was your motivation for such a huge project?

The motivation for producing and directing ‘Mas Man Peter Minshall’ lies in my passion for documenting culture, and the leading icon of the arts in Trinidad and Tobago has been Peter Minshall. Given our rich pool of talent, such declaration might seem thoughtless and provocative to people with a different mindset. Yet, art is privy to subjective interpretation and one cannot look at oneself in Minshall’s mirror without flinching or being awed – Sir Vidia Naipaul’s volume of work notwithstanding.

You probably know Peter Minshall better than most of us now. What was it like interacting with him on this? What is his reaction to the film?

No, I still don’t know Minshall well. His work, yes. I’ve been following his stylish themes since ‘Paradise Lost’ in 1976, and interacting with him can be measured to my interacting with the mas. There’s always a push and pull with Minsh; a tug-of-war of minds, though very few can match his wit. It’s his rope. Always. But it wasn’t a big deal to push back and forth during the interview sessions. It just happened in passing.

However, in the initial meeting when we discussed the production, his first question was, “So, how do you plan to do the film?” My immediate response was, “Without a narration.” “Good,” he said. And that little exchange provided the grease, and the grist, too, for the laborious five-year project. Minsh is every bit as proficient loquaciously as he is creatively. The camera, or the microphone, could be a fetish, you know.

About his reaction to the film, you’ll need to ask him yourself. A patron at a film festival in Wales asked during a Q&A, why we made the film while Minshall was still alive. I saw his point right away. Because nobody would relish a portrait of himself or herself, if it was manufactured by others. It’s not like looking in a mirror. Then again, it’s very much like looking in a mirror. For two decades, Minshall shoved his looking glass in our faces and said, “Look, that’s you. Like it or not.” Well, what’s wrong with responding in kind? Minsh has been the conscience of our age, and that’s how we depicted him. We really didn’t raise the temperature.

I liked the rawness of the look of ‘Mas Man’. Was this intentional? What was your vision for the film?

You probably watched the festival or extended cut, the 87-minute version, which was the first cut. It won at the 2009 Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival as a work in progress. Besides, when you spend so much time on a project, it can alter your mood, how you think, how the work behaves. Nine months later, after we began retailing the extended cut, we completed the final cut (57 minutes) just in time for the New York International Film Festival screening. Audience reaction was superlative. Even the festival director who was in the audience approved, for we had submitted a work in progress six months earlier. This was a telling moment in the film’s history. I was in the UK while the editor was finishing up, and I told him to FedEx the final cut to a friend in New York, who met me at the airport – without the package. He hadn’t received it. We got it with two hours to spare and headed for the festival by subway. But an announcement came up that trouble lay ahead on the tracks. We taxied to the cinema, arriving two minutes before the screening. And I rushed in with the Blu-Ray copy, begging the projectionist to screen the final, not the one he had in hand. He said, “I haven’t seen this; it’d be like flying blind.” We are both in the same boat, I said. And I sat in the back of a crowded theatre acting as if I were from Croatia and I’d walked into a New York cinema not knowing what to expect. That was my vision for the film. At last! The editor was the one who turned it into reality. The director can instruct all he wants, but it’s the editor who interprets the page. The film won three festivals thereafter.

There is a perception that our society fails to properly document and archive the lives of individuals such as Minshall. Do you agree? If so, why do you think that is?

Another story as illustration. A few years ago, I asked then-Speaker Pennelope Beckles why it was so difficult to raise funds to finance the project. Was I blighted? Was Minshall? “No”, she said. “Change the word documentary to film, as in ‘A Film by Dalton Narine.’” Documentary was too heavy for viewers. Then, she added, “Nobody has ever undertaken a project about Dr. Eric Williams, Hasely Crawford, Uriah “Buzz” Butler, Capt. Arthur Andrew Cipriani, and so on. Maybe they’d have found themselves in your shoes. You’re now the vanguard. Once you complete the film, with whatever funds (bank loans and pension funds mostly, along with a contribution by Trinidad and Tobago Film Company), others will follow your path.”

You said you had enough material left over to write a novel. If you did, what would be its theme?

The fascinating mind of a misunderstood artist.

You have produced over 14 films. What do you think of the TTFF and what do you think will help spur more people to turn to filmmaking in Trinidad?

‘Mas Man Peter Minshall’ is my 14th. And the TTFC question has answered itself. I’ll consider any request the TTFC asks of me. Whatever it takes. I see the company as a light probing the crevices of the budding filmmaker’s mind, reminding, “You, too, have a story to tell. We’ll help as far as we can go.”

You described yourself as a “writer who sees the big picture”. What’s your process like in filmmaking, as opposed to writing?

It’s almost the same road. There’s a fork, though, that takes filmmaking through a technical world. Whereas, strong verbs create powerful images, the mind has a mischievous camera of its own, though you must coax it properly through variations of angles and light and sound. That’s the simplest answer I know. One more thing, it is necessary to imbue both media with rhythm and pacing, particularly in dialogue.

What are your thoughts on the progression of Carnival? There are many who criticise the high price of costumes and perceived lack of ‘creativity’ – that it’s become very middle class. Do you think these are fair comments to make?

Relevant, for sure. Middle class is the wrong crowd, though. How about lower class? Funny you would ask about that. I’m about to wrap up a piece about the topic. Here’s a preview:

De ole time days was mas in yuh brass: Frame upon frame of colour-plated pageantry, tinged with Van Goghian hues that captured images of hordes of revellers magically transforming National Geographic and the Encyclopedia Britannica into a mobile theatre of the Drag and the stage.

Here, the dance of the Cree of Canada; there, the mystery of the Relics of Egypt; Somewhere in New Guinea beckons; Saga of Merrie England titillates. To Hell and Back and Back to Africa; Primitive Man and Extracts of the Animal Kingdom; Imperial Rome; The Glory that was Greece; and a plethora of sailor bands putting on a show, their risqué and comedic acts mimed to the rawness of steel band music, the only nativity in the multiculture, blessed and cursed alike, just like the mas. And fancy sailors, too, Fascinators and Syncopators strutting, and peacocking headgear, such as clocks and cameras and elephants and crabs from the Mang, leaving Cito Valasquez up front to bogart attention with his Gulliverous Fruits and Flowers.

Not to forget the traditional mas like the dragon blowing his whistle, a polished wooden snake, marble for eyes, wrapped around – as if copulating – a piece of bois rubbed down with coconut oil, this once-upon-a-time stick fighter turned ballet dancer operating Behind the Bridge; or the venerable Bookman dissuading his teenage counterpart from crossing the canal on George Street without the necessary preparation (or else what?) and the caped-tongue man with the oversized wide-brim frill hat fobbing children off with scary stories, parents shooing him away with money for the coffin, er, his sow’s ear purse.

The mas was all over the place because it felt free to play yourself, not free up, or wine down like rats in the sewer. Ha! God knows the rodents wouldn’t have tolerated such slackness. Indeed, thousands of them, unnerved by the mere notion, haul they tail and scurried across to French Street to sign up with Rat Race, Minshall’s purview of the land and its lubbers.

If you could change one thing about Trinidad Carnival, what would it be?

Bring back the sass and sassiness in Monday mas by throwing the day to the steel band. Pan all day, all night. At least, that would happen. But you can’t force the winers and “beachgoers” to change their ways and means.

What are your thoughts on the proposed National Carnival Centre? –

Can’t comment until I peruse the architect’s plans, whenever those are made available to the public.

You’re an artist yourself. What are some of the challenges you have faced working on your projects in Trinidad?

The seven deadly sins. Full stop.

‘Mas Man Peter Minshall’ was nominated for Best Documentary at nine festivals on four continents, and won five awards:   Best Documentary, Trinidad and Tobago International Film Festival [Submitted as a work in progress];  Honourable Mention, Greater Columbus International Film Festival (at 58, second oldest film festival in the USA) [Submitted as a work in progress];  Best Documentary, New York International Film Festival;  Best Documentary, South Africa International Film Festival;  Best Cinematography, Chagrin Falls International Documentary Festival.

See more of Darryn's work at http://darrynboodan.blogspot.com

Y'n't'd side - from "Bitter or better?" (a series of personal observations)

2011-01-06T13:25:00.000-08:00

Y'n't'd side

by DAVE WILLIAMS

I recently, lately, remembered, discovered that writing is creativity. I also discovered, on a profoundly personal level that once you are creating, all is well in the cosmic scheme of things. It may not be the pretty tropical picture we would rather paint, but it will be an amazing picture. In other words, creativity, like democracy don't need good parents. In fact, the worst the parents get, the more potent the offspring - the arts, sciences... the muscles of humanity - seem to become. Interestingly, I think that art and crime have the same parents - the same social imbalance and pressure that causes the one causes the other. Art, like democracy and like crime only grow, strong, healthy and win friends and influence people when nourished by x-amount ah shit. Pressure. But why is it that only crime is doing so much better than his brother? All the success, fame, notoriety, engagement, preoccupation and transformation? Artist need to engage the rogue voice, the dissenting counter to our slip-sliding civilisation. Why are only the criminals and politicians becoming brave while our canvases, stages and voices go blank with status quotes. Bitter or better

So, the National Museum is having a big show with about 30 artist from all around the world including 8 from T&T. Check this link athttp://artzpub.blogspot.com/2010/12/we-artists-exhibition-bringing-together.html. Or your daily newspapers. This is odd. Is this funded by our Gov't/us? If the answer is yes, it would be truly entertaining. The show states as its major objective "a desire for local artists to make connections and get their work out to the larger world as well as to bring foreign artists to Trinidad to enjoy and be inspired by our rich culture."Out of the 30 odd artist only 8 odd are from here. Yet another case of foreign content outstripping local content, reminiscent of so much we. Are we/Gov't again supporting local by promoting foreign. What... local not good enough to stand on its on merit. Where the island arrogance, our independence, the boundless faith in our destiny? Nothing is wrong with supporting or repatriating foreign trinis, like the curator of the show or Nicky Minaj or anyone who has "made it out there", It could counter the brain drain that has been jamming us for over 3 decades. But how can Gov't/we be supporting/funding repatriation and foreign consultancies and at the same time be dragging the stage right from under our feet, squeezing out the people who live and practice there art here. I hear even Machel might be taking up residence outside. (p'se confirm). Has our Gov't/we ever supported a local artist/s' concert, outside of Devine Echoes, with an injection of anything like Minaj-esque $826,000 or even the $300,000+ that she herself was paid. And what is this museum show costing us. Especially since they done ahready have no money to pay panmen the measly $1,000. Why is local support always commensurate and proportional to foreign-ness. Is our Gov't saying “Buy local… but from abroad”. Where's Andre Bagoo? And what are the policies, criteria, channels, processes for getting a booking at the bloomin museum anyway... or at the NAPA, or Queen's Hall, or the Bowl, the Stadium or any artspace funded by us/Gov't for that matter? Why does none of us know? They/Gov't only always gets to do what they want to do or are inclined to support, and/or supports who is inclined to support them. Furthermore and tobesides, if an event is Govt/we-funded, shouldn't there be a transparent selection process that ‘s made clear to the public, whatever that process is – ent is our money!? Why is it not being spent on us.

You can't have multi-culturalism when politics and politicians are battening down and sinking their boney, self-feeding, pre-lubed fingers into every arts crack and then swallowing the keys.

Has “Culture” like “Youth” become synonymous with Governments and political inclinations? Art is usually a tight and uncomfortable fit for the fingers of politics - a force fit - a false fit. The thing about politicians is that once they have their whole hand up yuh ass, you can only say what they ventriloquise. And taking the metaphor miserably further: the discomfort and Y'nin to d side soon stops and you soon forget there's a fist up your ass, and they just keep shoving bigger and bigger ones up in there But the coupling is never pretty nor real and they soon move onto the next ass. Can we let these fellahs walk through yuh ass and fist and cuff the democracy and/of creativity from yuh belly? But like it or not, democracy and creativity are built to take licks even if we not. When artists become the playthings, tools and mouth organs of un-greased politicians, know that democracy and creativity have taken their exit. Both are like black widows, they will bite the head off the same fellah who just force-breed them. The babies come anyway - fatherless forces of nature made to be reckoned with.

WE THE ARTISTS An exhibition bringing together local and foreign artists

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Curated by Nicollete Ramirez

January 5 – January 26, 2011

Opening Reception: Wednesday January 5, 2011, 6-8 pm

The National Museum and Art Gallery of Trinidad and Tobago is pleased to present WE THE ARTISTS, an exhibition bringing together local and foreign artists, curated by Nicollette Ramirez, Director of the Creative Collective Beez and Honey.

Trinidad is about racial and cultural mélange, discourse about that mix, and dissent and division too. I decided to create an exhibition that would mix Trinidadian artists with their contemporaries outside of the island. I wanted the artists to have a conversation and in that conversation make breakthroughs intellectually, emotionally, creatively and spiritually. My choices are my own, based on my experience with the art and the artists and relationships, both new and long standing. The impetus of a curator to acquire work is hardly different from that of an art collector or an art dealer; the desire is the same. The curator however, has the responsibility to present the work for purely aesthetic and intellectual reasons while the collector and dealer can afford to be more decadent in their motivation (to make money, to show off). I’ve tried to include artists from every corner of the globe. If a region is under-represented it is only because of my own lack of knowledge/experience in that region. E.g. Africa. I’m still learning what that vast continent has to offer in terms of the arts.

WE THE ARTISTS is an attempt to give the viewer a chance to engage in the conversation between the works of foreign and local artists using the unifying language of images. Images are open to interpretation and discussion, but unarguably images are a unifying language across the world. Consider the universal signs for WC, Children Crossing, No Smoking and so on. The artists in this exhibition offer a range of images and media for the viewer to identify common theories, emotions, social, philosophical and political concerns, regardless of where they are from. On the other hand, they also challenge the viewer by denying them the easy interpretation of their work, based on prior knowledge of their background.

WE THE ARTISTS is a start to the conversation; there are no answers here, just a few questions put on the table to consider. There is room for growth and a further expanding of the horizons. A major objective of the exhibition is a desire for local artists to make connections and get their work out to the larger world as well as to bring foreign artists to Trinidad to enjoy and be inspired by our rich culture.

LIST OF ARTISTS

Marina Abramovic (Former Yugoslavia)

Antoni Amat (Spain)

Kristin Anderson (USA)

Dean Arlen (Trinidad)

Clarina Bezzola (Switzerland)

Ashley Bickerton (UK/USA/Indonesia)

Juanli Carrion (Spain)

Gordon Cheung (UK)

Uri Dotan (Israel/USA)

Ivars Drulle (Latvia)

Marcel Eichner (Germany)

Embah (Trinidad)

Wyatt Gallery (USA/Trinidad)

Vicente Grondona (Argentina)

Anne Herzog (France)

Michelle Isava (Trinidad)

Kwynn Johnson (Trinidad)

Thomas Kiesewetter (Germany)

Danny Licul (USA)

Jiandyin (Jiradej & Pornpilai Meemalai) (Thailand)

Wael Noureddine (Lebanon/France)

Anselm Reyle (Germany)

Spencer Tunick (USA)

Vadis Turner (USA)

Carlo Zanni (Italy)

SHORT VIDEO/FILM NIGHT: Friday October 14, 2010 Time TBD

LECTURE/TALK/DISCUSSION: Thursday January 20, 2010 Time TBD

PERFORMANCE NIGHT: Wednesday January 25, 2010 6-8 pm

Address: The National Museum and Art Gallery
117 Frederick Street,Port of Spain, Trinidad, West Indies

DArlen Projects

2010-12-17T07:37:00.000-08:00

I guess DA Blog will be about the artist, the projects and the mission we are embarking on presenting art and design. In a more interwoven way in our society. Letting that society understand what that means.

How lamentable as an artist it is to see that our contribution to the quality of life has been so dismal. Only a chosen few have been able to feel the enormous wealth that comes from the enlightenment of culture.

It is the ideal that art and design be part of the living body and the space it embodies. It about finding the real body, rather impaling upon the body a set of rules that have recolonized the body, through a globalization paradigm that we have fallen for, hook line and sinker.

The idea is, can we rethink our art and design philosophical content or have we ever reconsidered that we have one.

Dean Arlen

Winner of Best Caribbean Animation Award at Animae Caribe Animation and New Media Festival 2010 - Jamaican entry

2010-11-29T08:25:00.001-08:00

RODELL WARNER WITHDRAWS FROM ANIMAE CARIBE

2010-11-25T06:59:00.000-08:00

The above clip is a short film made by Rodell Warner. The film was first admitted to the Animae Caribe Festival and then withdrawn. The following is a letter from Warner to Camille Selvon Abrahams, Creative Director Animae Caribe Animation Festival. Courtesy of the Artist Rodell Warner.

Camille,

Forget it. I'd like to withdraw from the festival. Please don't show my film.

You're ridiculous. The more I think about the kind of place I want to live in versus what you are thinking makes the place I do live in, the more i realise i cant put up wit fuckery like this.

There's no film festival anywhere in the world that accepts someone's work, then calls to apologise that they can't show it or ask them to change the music based on how 'jarring' it is or ANYTHING of that nature.

That's ass fuckin backwards.

Its 'lets pretend we have a film festival'.

Its 'lets show nice things that everyone agrees with'.

Who decided this should be in your show in the first place if you find it too 'jarring' for your 'aged 4-65 audience' and your 'people on the level of academy award winners' anyway??

Forget it.

I guess you can't show a 'jarring' film at animae caribe, even if the point of your film for it to be jarring.

No wonder the fucking thing produces such shining stars every year.

Fuckin joke.

Do Better,

-Rodell Warner

COCO DANCE FESTIVAL NOV. 26th to 28th 2010

2010-11-23T07:17:00.000-08:00

Choreographers’ Collective - nicknamed COCO - is a group of independent choreographers - Dave Williams, Nicole Wesley, Nancy Herrera and Sonja Dumas – which offers performance support for choreographers working in unconventional ways in Trinidad and Tobago. COCO will host its second annual dance festival from Friday, November 26th to Sunday, November 28th – this time in a series of unusual spaces.

The 2010 COCO Season, called the Moving Movement Museum, is a series of dances presented in two backyards of Woodbrook which already have a tradition of performance – Alice Yard, at 80 Roberts Street, and, two blocks away, Bohemia at 33 Murray Street. The first half will be at Alice Yard, and the second half will be at Bohemia. Patrons will be treated to a gallery of live performances created by an A-list line-up of both established and emerging choreographers: Dave Williams, Nicole Wesley, Rachel Lee, Gregor Breedy, Akuzuru, Anika Marcelle and Sonja Dumas, as well as choreography students from dance programmes of the University of Trinidad and Tobago and University of the West Indies. “Even the intermission is exciting,” said COCO co-director, Sonja Dumas. “Movement will lead you from one space to the other.”

Showtimes: Friday, November 26th and Saturday, November 27th – 8:00pm; Sunday, November 28th – 7:00pm. Tickets available from the choreographers+performers and from the organizers. Kindly call 622-4426 to make reservations. Security will be provided.

the Global Africa Project Notes and a craft project from MAD

2010-11-19T13:14:00.000-08:00

1 of 3

Peera, assembled!

Article courtesy:

Things We Love Posted by Liz Gwinn November 18, 2010 4:21 pm

STUDIO MUSEUM HARLEM BLOG

Part of the fun of working at a museum is that sometimes it’s okay to cut out of the office early and do something really fun—like, for instance, visit a museum.

Yesterday afternoon I had the opportunity to visit the Museum of Art and Design’s new exhibition, The Global Africa Project, on its opening day. I’ve been eagerly anticipating this exhibition for months. Not only was it co-curated by Dr. Lowery Stokes Sims (former Studio Museum Director) and Dr. Leslie King Hammond (of the Maryland Institute College of Art, as well as a contributor to Re:Collection), the show includes a plethora of the Museum’s former artists in residence and alumni of our exhibition programs. And Associate Curator Naomi Beckwith wrote for the catalogue!

So I hopped on the A train and tried not to be jealous of MAD’s gorgeous building. I’ll leave the official reviews to the pros, but will just say the show is a can’t-miss, packed with amazing art, fashion, textiles, furniture, and more, and blurs the boundaries between all of them. And I loved it. Despite the growing influence of craft practices in contemporary art, it’s still relatively unusual to see such a diversity of materials, forms, and purposes displayed together. As a fanatical knitter and all-around crafty person, the display of “crafts” and “art” together reminded me that all of this amazing stuff—whether a Kehinde Wiley painting or a basket from the Rwandan collective Gahaya Links—was made by people. This is a truism, but sometimes it’s easy in museums to just focus on the finished object instead of remembering the complex hearts, minds, and hands involved in making that object.

I was so inspired that in addition to knitting like a fiend on the subway home, I took a moment in the office today to assemble a DIY project from the show—“Peera,” a cut-out paper bench by Marlon Darbeau and Christopher Cozier of Trinidad’s Alice Yard. Pick up your own at the Global Africa Project! (but I wouldn’t recommend sitting on it...)

ALICE YARD IN GLOBAL AFRICA CATALOG

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Cover

Essay by Christopher Cozier A Critical Space: Notes from the Global Yard.

Bios page

Draconian Switch featured. Issue 5. Marlon Darbeau.

THE ARTZPUB INTERVIEWS: 5 QUESTIONS WITH CHRISTOPHER COZIER

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Little Gestures with notes- Christopher Cozier

Little Gestures (original)- Christopher Cozier

Artzpub caught up with Artist/Writer/Thinker Christopher Cozier on the eve of his leaving for a showing in New York at the Museum of Arts and Design. We asked him about the show, the Alice Yard art space and his body of work…

Artzpub: It’s been a big year for Alice Yard: Paramaribo Span a string of successful engagements in Alice Yard and now The Global Africa Project at the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), NYC. Tell us a little bit about how you view the year and how Alice Yard became included in the show at MAD.

Christopher Cozier: Yes – it’s good that our ideas are being noticed and that they can be applied and tested beyond the physical Yard. Fingers crossed.

Lowery Sims first asked me to recommend some design-based work from Trinidad. I sent her links to various things and she was really taken by Marlon Darbeau’s work from the New Orleans show and to things like Draconian Switch. She was initially looking at steel pan and also at architects, so obviously Sean’s investigations came up. Our conversation shifted from Trinidad to the region and to one or two artists from Africa that I had met - people like Ugochukwu Bright Eke, who did a residency at Alice Yard, and Kossi Assou who was in Haiti on my last visit there. I was never thinking of my own work but then she began to research my stuff and realised that there was a design element that keeps coming up in my practice, over the years – the various rubber stamps, the mass-produced objects such as the Box of Fear, the various cards, and objects like the benches or peeras, for example. She was curious about our use of the internet and the dialogues and communities we have been constructing – the ongoing conversation with Sean Leonard and Nicholas Laughlin around Alice Yard and its networks. It all expanded from there and especially after we did the “Critical Space” clip on Youtube for the conference at MICA.

AP: Your old alma mater, MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art) is “Co-organising an unprecedented exhibition of African art, design, and craft worldwide”. The show, co-curated by MICA’s own Leslie Hammond King and Lowery Sims, features a number of MICA graduates. It’s been described as one of the twenty top highly anticipated shows of the fall by New York Magazine. What, if any, is the significance of this for you?

CC: OK. I didn’t know that. Well, Leslie was one of my undergraduate lecturers and subsequently advised me in making my choices while applying to graduate school in the 80s. Lowery did studio visits while I was a graduate student at Rutgers but she may not recall. Thanks for bringing that to my attention. For some reason I was thinking more about our little John D, the one that was, back home. In my days it was just a few little wobbly brown stools and tables in a hot dusty room in a large, typical early 60s tropical institutional space. I can still smell the fermenting grain from the flour mills or hear the hiss of steam from T&TEC.

AP: Speaking of alma maters, John D. (John Donaldson Technical Institute) has quite a number of graduates showing around the globe at this time: the Marlons (Griffith and Darbeau), Wendell McShine and of course, yourself. Helluva coincidence.

CC: Not really when you think about it carefully. For example, John D gave me my start as a professional artist – a competitive and solid enough portfolio to get into university abroad. I did not do well in secondary school here so I couldn’t get into UWI. I was a reject from the conventional system even though I passed 11+ for my first choice school. I made doodles and paper planes with my O-level answer sheets. I was extremely alienated. I still have them in a zip-lock bag at home after smuggling them out of the exam room! Maybe they will become part of a future artwork in some way. John D. was my first real lifeline in a society with extremely limited educational and life choices and I gave it my all with that in mind. So, when I first returned to Trinidad after studying abroad, I wanted to be part of that and to follow on with that tradition (not the wobbly desks and the dusty space but the critical dialogues) to do the same for others in whom I saw the same struggle.

I remain astonished and elated at what was accomplished there for and by myself and others, for Wendell, Marlon D and G, Nikolai Noel and so many more. The things we take for granted here in Trinidad confuse me often.

AP: You were chosen to create “Now Showing”, the official image for the 2010 Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival. As a result, you ‘returned’ home this year, this being your first showing in Trinidad in a decade. ‘Returned’ is really is a funny term when you look at it because you live and create in Trinidad, though your works have been on tour in collections abroad. What work do you currently have on tour and now that you are ‘home’ so to speak, when can we expect to see the works here in Trinidad?

CC: Yes, I was quite surprised to be asked. An interesting question resides in this idea of “here” – my work resides where there is a context or space for it. We are talking about critical engagement and financial investment – about a responsive professional space for real growth. I would like Trinidad to be one of those kinds of locations as well. I remain optimistic. But then – look at where most Caribbean literature is written and also published. At the end of the day, “home” is wherever one can find some level of equality, dignity and way in the world.

One of my projects is now in Martinique after being in England and Spain, another is still in Canada, a collection of my prints were just on show in the US and Alice Yard is in two shows, the current one at MAD which opens this week and the other which opened in Miami/Basel and was in France over the last few months. The film festival image simply created a reason for me to do something in Trinidad. However on-line my work and ideas are always “here,” “there” or “everywhere” according to how you interpret “location”.

Made in China - Christopher Cozier

The “made in china” box came up in the development of the “Now Showing” image. So the process was a good one for me in that some interesting ideas came up that I would like investigate further, and it may develop into a show that I would like to do here in Trinidad. It’s been 10 years since that has crossed my mind…that’s exciting for me. Having that feeling or thought.

AP: In the short film “Alice Yard: A Work in Progress” by Darryn Boodan and Mariel Brown, you discuss Alice Yard as a conceptual enterprise. Sean Leonard describes the Yard as a place to PLAY. Nicholas Laughlin portrays the Yard as a freedom of the space. Expand on this for us, and give us an overview of where or rather what you see in store for Alice Yard’s immediate future and your hope for the contemporary art scene in Trinidad and Tobago.

CC: We are an actual and virtual yard, delineated/configured by creative interests. We are building a critical or investigative dialogue or conversation, a platform or context for creative endeavors. We are a “yes”... “go ahead” and “do it” space, not a “Trinidad not ready for that” or “people need to be educated” kind of space. We appreciate the value of dreams and self respect. We are both an actual physical space as well as a virtual one so the logical step is for Sean’s experiments with architecture as designing spaces for social interaction to keep expanding out into the region and the diaspora. For our recently accomplished (and of course celebrated) 4^th anniversary, Marcel Pinas and Ann Hermelijn of Suriname, Sheena Rose of Barbados, Heino Schmid and John Cox from The Bahamas and O’Neil Lawrence of Jamaica joined us for a series of discussions and presentations as we try to figure how to facilitate each other’s interests. We are trying to figure how to move artists between these locations and build curatorial projects and exchanges.

AP: Chris you have always been a solo artist, in a sense. How is the experience different now that you're at MAD as part of a collective?

CC: I have never seen myself that way. I am always in dialogue with others about their work and ideas and my own. Roxanne Fung’s family bakery in St Anns made the bread for my Chicago installation of “Bread on Wheels” – the shape of the loaves suited the look I wanted, Kiss Bread for my Cuba installation of sandwiches. I have collaborated with Earth TV and later Richard Fung for my video works. And for this Alice Yard work, Marlon Darbeau, Sean and Murphy at the Callaloo Company – the list is long.

Work is also “produced” by someone simply looking at it or by someone choosing to create the situation in which it can be experienced and through critical reflection and so on.

There are many kinds of collectives. I have always seen my works as also being engaged in a conversation, as building a kind of critical architecture or context not just for my own interests.

EYE: RODELL WARNER AT JOY WAI GALLERY NYC

2010-11-12T08:12:00.000-08:00

Joy Wai Gallery is proud to celebrate its grand opening by inviting international photographers to challenge themselves for its inaugural exhibition, Whose Self-Portrait? The Subject Behind the Camera. This group exhibition will comprise a collection of images from a selection of contemporary photographers that will explore the varied aspects of self-portraiture in a fresh and creative manner.Trinidadian Photographer Rodell Warner is among those who have been invited.The gallery will open its doors to the public on December 16th, 2010 in Downtown New York. Whose Self-Portrait? The Subject Behind the Camera will be on display through January 31st 2011. 

BACK IN THE RECENT DAY MICHELLE ISAVA IN ALICE YARD 2007

2010-11-11T08:02:00.000-08:00

thebookmann | November 03, 2007

What is more important? the idea, the performance or the public reaction to both? Michelle Isava wants to test the waters and she is given the opportunity to do so at Alice Yard in Port of Spain, Trinidad, West Indies. Alice Yard is a platform for independent artists to showcase their work.

Ms. Isava work entails a performance piece of a type not seen to this degree locally. With her video camera, she enclosed herself into a cardboard box and projected a live image onto a screen visible to the people mulling around in the yard.

Ms. Isava's duration is set at closing time which means she may confine herself in the enclosure for over four hours. Her concept prior to the performance, she says is to expose herself to places she feels most less at ease. The power of this installation is its simplicity. And as inquisitive humans are, the disillusion to the reality that the projected video was indeed of a woman fidgeting around in a box all this time had members of the audience scratching their heads and finding the piece quite disturbing.

http://thebookmann.blogspot.com/2007/...

BLUE RANGE JAZZ FEATURING ETIENNE CHARLES

2010-11-10T14:36:00.000-08:00

ARTIST GOES MAD

2010-11-10T14:05:00.001-08:00

Richard Wells, Business Development Director, CMB (left) hands his namesake, Richard Rawlins, a cheque in front of CMB’s office on Rust Street, St. Clair.

Artist-Designer and Associate Creative Director, Richard Mark Rawlins heads off to the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), NYC to be part of the ground breaking exhibition “The Global Africa Project”.

Rawlins, a full-time creative mind, manages the studio at Collier Morrison Belgrave (CMB) Limited, is a collaborator in the Alice Yard artspace initiative and is the publisher of Draconian Switch eMagazine. Rawlins will be showing a special ALICE YARD issue of Draconian Switch at The Global Africa Project.

Draconian Switch is an Art and Design magazine published in Trinidad and Tobago by Rawlins with the collaboration of a group of artists, designers, and writers. The Magazine’s primary goal is to feature the work of contemporary artists currently working in Trinidad and Tobago or with global Caribbean connections.

The Global Africa Project will feature the work of over 100 artists working in Africa, Europe, Asia, the United States and the Caribbean.

Managing Director at CMB, Mark White, said he was happy to part sponsor Rawlins as “we either support those who offer a progressive reshape of our future or abdicate leaving life in the hands of those with questionable designs…”.

Rawlins recently concluded “Chinese Worker” at Alice Yard, an exhibition examining the influx and impact of the Chinese worker on local society.

about Richard Mark Rawlins

about Draconian Switch

about Alice Yard

GYAZETTE

2010-11-10T12:22:00.001-08:00

FREETOWN COLLECTIVE

2010-11-10T12:12:00.000-08:00

NEW DRACONIAN SWITCH NEW WEBSITE

2010-11-10T08:54:00.000-08:00

and we are live... new site new issue of Draconian Switch...Issue 15 features ALICE YARD. New site design by TANYA WILLIAMS, Webdev by Anderson Mitchell...This issue of Draconian Switch is also appearing in the GLOBAL AFRICA PROJECT at MAD, NYC. read. enjoy. share.

http://www.artzpub.com/home

Show & Tell 11: Tech_Styles

2010-11-09T13:32:00.000-08:00

Friday November 12th, 2010

Feeling flooded with the day to day grind? Why not get away from it all and come down to our next instalment of Show and Tell. This month we are looking forward to being taken on a virtual spin by two presenters deeply involved in the new digital way.

Sharleen Chin
Sharleen Chin, Marketing and Public Relations Manager for Meiling, is one of only twenty people in the Caribbean with expertise in the realm of virtual worlds.

A.K.A Chigadee London, she is the premier hat designer in Second Life and her three year old virtual business (Couture Chapeau) is a successful, but tiny drop in a multi-billion dollar, cutting-edge industry. Sharleen makes a comfortable living selling virtual hats in a virtual world, playing her part in a new type of career. These immersive worlds have been used by corporate giants for several years now as educational, communication, commercial, public relation and fund raising tools and they are set to keep on growing.

"You are only limited by your imagination" says Sharleen, adding that “it is perhaps one of the most creative platforms ever available to anyone."

Mark Lyndersay
Computer enhanced, digitally enabled photographer and technology writer Mark Lyndersay explores the nexus of the creative process and digital technologies from his perspective as a technology columnist and professional photographer. Mark began his digital journey as a photographer in 1990 with the first commercial copy of Photoshop (1.07) at the Trinidad Guardian.

As he puts it, "I saw the clone tool and that was it. I knew my career would be changing right then and there."

Lyndersay has worked as a photographer and journalist in Trinidad and Tobago since 1976 and his column on personal technology, BitDepth, has been published continuously since 1995.

Spread the word, admission is free.

Drinks are on the house thanks to Red Bull, Brydens (http://www.brydenstt.com/) and Island Beers (http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=174965845847591#!/group.php?gid=59180998492) who have supplied us with energy, vino and an excellent range of English ales (don’t forget to tip your server!).

DJ K-Lik is here for the afterparty with fine future sounds, so stick around afterwards.

Doors open at 6:30pm.

See you there!
Visit their new and improved facebook page for more details. (http://www.facebook.com/abovegroup)

Vintage Clothing Market at Abovegroup

2010-11-09T13:18:00.000-08:00

Saturday, November 13 · 9:00am - 4:00pm

Unique, affordable and eco-friendly On sale will be one-of-a-kind designer and high-street brands, day to night, from around the globe, TT$10 and up. Also on sale: recycled shoes and gorgeous baby clothes. Brands include Costume National, Betsey Johnson, Hussein Chalayan, Marc Jacobs, The Cloth, Zac Posen for Target, Hayden Harnett, Martin Margiela (shoes), Antik Batik, Ghost, Meiling, Isabelle Marant, Jean Paul Gaultier, Helmut Lang, Proenza Schouler, Yves St Laurent. All sizes represented. Please bring your own bags. We will also have eco-friendly reusable bags on sale if you forget your own!

Want more about ABOVEGROUP. Click here.

Designer Marlon Darbeau Showing at MAD

2010-11-08T08:22:00.000-08:00

man among the peeras courtesy Damian Libert

Marlon Darbeau is a Designer and Creative Director of Trinidad’s leading Design and Branding firm, Abovegroup. He is also a collaborator at the Alice Yard art-space initiative. He comes from a family tradition of making things in a workshop that was at home or very close to home.

Designer Darbeau is showing his PEERA project at the Global Africa Project show opening on the 17th of November 2010 and continues through to 2013 at the Museum of Art and Design, NYC.

The show brings together over 100 artists working in Africa, Europe, Asia, the United States, and the Caribbean. The exhibition actively challenges conventional notions of a singular African aesthetic and identity, and reflects the integration of African art and design without making the usual distinctions between “professional” and “artisan.”

The ‘PEERA project’ is a contemporary re-interpretation of the traditional wooden benches that are a household presence in Trinidad and Tobago. Darbeau’s interpretation mixes the familiar with the innovative to create a design object that is both utilitarian and aesthetically desirable. A concept he attributes to discussions with Architect Sean Leonard who challenged him to see what more could be done with this object to make it more than just a place to sit. This new ‘PEERA’ employs a number of manufacturing processes and collaborations from cnc routing to traditional joinery and even powder coating by PANLAND. The end result is an art object that provides two benches, one metal and one wood with a unit space that allows the adding of specially designed ice trays to keep wine or beer chilled. This makes it great for cricket or just carrying around tools in your car.

Darbeau no stranger to showing his work has exhibited at Alice Yard, Woodbrook, POS. and the BECA Art Gallery, New Orleans. PEERA launches commercially in Trinidad soon.

for more on MARLON DARBEAU click here.

for a short film about ALICE YARD click here.

for more about ABOVEGROUP click here.

Alice Yard: A Work in Progress

2010-11-07T16:16:00.000-08:00

Animae Caribe Animation Festival Mascot goes Viral

2010-10-29T09:28:00.000-07:00

Paco is a metal robot machine that came from the planet PAC outside of our galaxy. His real name is PAC-0 but people just call him Paco for short. He arrived here quite by accident, when on his way to his Galaxy he experienced engine problems and crash landed on earth. To be exact he landed in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. After some days of exploring, he was hired by the Animae Caribe Animation Festival team to be the official Mascot for the festival. All this is in exchange for coconut water his favorite ‘Trini’ drink. PACO’s contract runs out on November 28th 2010, which is the closing date of the Festival. That’s the story on PACO’s Facebook page, which currently has around 800 friends and increasing daily.

read it all here in The Guardian:
http://guardian.co.tt/magazines/gie/2010/10/25/animae-caribe-animation-festival-mascot-goes-viral

Paco plays the Pan from Paco Vasquez on Vimeo.

Paco In Curepe Toilets from Paco Vasquez on Vimeo.

Paco in the Bus Route from Paco Vasquez on Vimeo.

BLESS UP!

2010-10-25T10:01:00.001-07:00

Roger Alexis: More than Puppets on Film

2010-10-25T08:35:00.000-07:00

photo by Mark Lyndersay

Puppetry has always been a thing for kids, but Roger Alexis has definitely made it a must-see for adults. Trinis have been 'cracking up' over the short films "Thou Shall not Horn" and "The Fete", which have gone viral, amassing over 98,000 and 70,000 views, respectively on YouTube, and have been circulating Facebook. Distinctly Trini, and starring the puppets Santana and Janice, the films are written, directed and produced by Alexis, who's been dabbling in video creation since his teens.

courtesy OUTLISH.com read it all here:
http://www.outlish.com/roger-alexis-more-than-puppets-on-film/

check out Roger's latest film: PATSY

OUTLISH named a finalist in the International Digital Magazine Awards 2010 for Launch of the Year

2010-10-22T09:05:00.000-07:00

Outlish on Gayelle News from Mark Lyndersay on Vimeo.

clip courtesy GAYELLE the Channel

Anthony Joseph at Alice Yard

2010-10-19T17:50:00.000-07:00

Anthony Joseph reads Aranguez

2010-10-19T17:46:00.000-07:00

JANINE FUNG 4AM featuring Muhammad Muwakil

2010-10-19T17:18:00.000-07:00

4am from Janine Fung on Vimeo.

The Solitary Alchemist, Trailer from Mariel Brown

2010-10-19T14:25:00.001-07:00

The Solitary Alchemist, Trailer from Mariel Brown on Vimeo.

RODELL WARNER SHOOTS NOBLE

2010-10-14T12:34:00.000-07:00

Shooting a dance show is fun.

Gorgeous bodies in elegant costumes making beautiful shapes under a light show - Its hard to not make some interesting images in a situation like that.

These are some documentary pictures of the Noble Douglas Dance Company Incorporated's 25 anniversary celebratory show "DAM 25" at the Queen's Hall a few weeks ago. Enjoy :]

see it all here: http://freepaperblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/noble-douglas-dance-company-incs-dam-25.html

ARTZPUB IDENTITY BY TANYA WILLIAMS

2010-10-14T11:58:00.000-07:00

Artzpub identity design by Tanya Williams

Artzpub the home base of DRACONIAN SWITCH eMag will be getting freshen up courtesy the above named designer. The new look and blog header is the first of that roll out. More to come.
Watch for it.

ONE TALKS- BEN JACKSON

2010-10-14T11:08:00.001-07:00

Detnator presents "OneTalks" a new online series. Join us as we present a fresh, no frills perspective on issues surrounding the music and entertainment industry in Trinidad & Tobago and how they affect us all, from underground artists to major players to the public.

Ben Jackson has been involved in the Pan movement in Trinidad & Tobago for over 25 years. He has grown from player to instructor to music teacher and back again. His career started as a player in Laventille Sound Specialists now known as the Courts Sound Specialists. He was also a member of the Success Laventille Composite School Steel Orchestra where he moved on to become the musical director of that band. He then became a music teacher at that school for seven years then moved on to be a part of the Pan In The Classroom project. He is presently involved in the HYPE program as a music instructor.

BY LOCAL IN THE TTFF

2010-09-28T10:01:00.000-07:00

Live from T&T

Quiet Desperation, the story of an unstatisfied middle-aged man

A number of local feature-length and short films are screening at the trinidad+tobago film festival/10 (ttff/10), currently taking place and running until October 5.

Approximately one-third of the films screening at the Festival, which is presented by Flow, are local films. These comprise both dramatic and documentary films. One of the documentaries being screened is Live From Trinidad & Tobago, directed by Curtis Popplewell and Walt Lovelace. Filmed across three weeks in Europe in 2009, Live From Trinidad &Tobago is a behind-the-scenes view of the Caribbean Invasion tour featuring the musicians Maximus Dan, Marlon Asher and Jah Melody.

Another documentary being shown is Sonya Dumas' Julia and Joyce: Two Stories of Two Dance Pioneers. This film looks at aspects of the local dance world and its impact through the eyes of two dance legends, Julia Edwards and Joyce Kirton, in an attempt to capture some of the history of dance in T&T.

Other documentaries include The Amerindians, by Tracy Assing and Sophie Meyer, about the Santa Rosa Carib community; Mandisa Pantin's Caribbean Skin, African Identity, an exploration of what it means to be African in Trinidad; and The Audacity of the Creole Imagination, Kim Johnson's short film about the origins of pan.

Among the dramatic films being shown is The Blood and the Bois, a supernatural drama about the restless spirit of a stickfighter, unable to be at peace until his death is avenged. Directed by Sigmond Cromwell, the film stars Che Rodriguez and Curtis Gross. Another of the dramas is Renée Pollonais' Quiet Desperation, the story of an unstatisfied middle-aged man, Heathcliff, and his critical and controlling wife, Merlin.

For more information on these and all the films screening at the ttff/10, including screening locations, dates and times, go to www.trinidadandtobagofilmfestival.com.

NEBULA868 KINGZ of Da City Video

2010-09-28T06:44:00.000-07:00

Check this out.

BRING IT TO THE TABLE: CURRY DUCK

2010-09-28T05:32:00.000-07:00

Bring It To The Table: Showcasing some of the local and regional cuisine that was featured in the Taste T&T Event.

Abovegroup goes guerilla on film's ass...

2010-09-23T11:54:00.001-07:00

Much Love from Above.

Abovegroup recently initiated a guerilla campaign on behalf of the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival. I LOVE FILM. Check out the pix of the Abovegroup at work and then some...BOOM!

For film schedule and times visit trinidadandtobagofilmfestival.com
To see what else we have been up to check abovegroup.com

Detnator presents "OneTalks" a new online series.

2010-09-21T03:40:00.000-07:00

Detnator presents "OneTalks" a new online series.
Join us with host Valdez Brooks as we present a fresh, no frills perspective on issues surrounding the music and entertainment industry in Trinidad & Tobago and how they affect us all, from underground artists to major players to the public.

Subscribe Today & become part of a movement.

Download:

FLV MP4 3GP

Now go Check out 4 Elements Radio on line now.
http://www.4elementsradio.com/index2.html

ON NOW IN ALICE YARD

2010-09-20T04:53:00.000-07:00

Ebony Patterson - Upper Annex

Keisha Castello - The Box

Marvin Bartley- The Annex (main)

The Galleries: Annex, Upper Annex, Box, and Bandroom Nook

SHOT IN KINGSTON

The exploration of digital photo- and video-based work is a significant recent trend among younger Jamaican artists. Shot in Kingston assembles work by Marvin Bartley, Keisha Castello, Stefan Clarke, Marlon James, O’Neil Lawrence, Ebony Patterson, and Oneika Russell, curated by Christopher Cozier and O’Neil Lawrence.

Galleries Open: Friday 24 September, Monday 27 September & Wednesday 29 September (8.00 to 10.00 pm), or by special request.

UP NEXT

= Friday 24 September: Outward reach
Alice Yard’s Caribbean network includes independent contemporary art institutions in the Bahamas and Suriname. Artists John Cox of Popopstudios in Nassau and Marcel Pinas of the Kibii Wi Foundation in Moengo join Christopher Cozier in a conversation about regional collaborations and future possibilities.
8.00 pm

= Monday 27 September: Heino Schmidt: Equilibrium
Bahamian artist Heino Schmidt has been living and working at Alice Yard since May 2010, supported by a Commonwealth Connections International Arts Residency. Equilibrium is a new work created during his time in Port of Spain, also presented at the 2010 Liverpool Biennial.
8.00 pm

http://heinoschmid.com/

= Wednesday 29 September: O’Neil Lawrence on the Kingston scene

O’Neil Lawrence is an artist and curator at the National Gallery of Jamaica. He will give an informal talk on current trends in Jamaica and the artists included in Shot in Kingston.

8.00 pm

= Friday 1 October: Sheena Rose and Lauren Hinds
Barbadian Sheena Rose was artist in residence at Alice Yard in May 2009, when she presented her animated video work Town. She recently participated in a residency and exhibition in Cape Town. Lauren Hinds is a Trinidadian artist working in the medium of the graphic novel. She recently completed a year-long programme at the Centre for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vermont. Rose and Hinds will spend a week working together, then present their collaborative project to the public, together with recent solo works.
8.00 pm

About Alice Yard

80 Roberts Street, Woodbrook

Alice Yard Space is a small gallery in the backyard of 80 Roberts Street--a nine-by-seven-by-ten-foot concrete and glass box designed by architect Sean Leonard, which opens in September 2007. It is just large enough to fit an artist's installation, a video work, a few drawings or paintings. Since September 2006, Alice Yard has been home to a series of weekly Friday-night "Conversations", bringing musicians, artists, writers, and audiences together for informal performances and interactions. The gallery now creates the possibility for another kind of conversation, by offering contemporary artists a space to show a carefully selected piece of recent work, or even work in progress. The concept evolved from a conversation between Sean Leonard and artist Christopher Cozier, and through a series of drawings in a sketchbook they shared over a period of six months. They conceived of a modest space where artists can experiment with ideas and works not normally feasible in a commercial gallery. They are inviting other artists to join in their sketchbook conversation, as it were, and also inviting viewers into the process. Alice Yard Space asks questions about the relationship between artists and their community, outside the conventional bounds of the art market (but not oblivious to commercial concerns).

Holding the strain

2010-09-18T16:45:00.000-07:00

Mervyn Morris on the life and poetic achievement of Wayne Brown (1944–2009)

Wayne Brown in his early twenties. Photograph courtesy Mariel Brown

I first met Wayne Brown late in 1966, when I returned to the University of the West Indies to be warden of Taylor Hall. He was one of the outstanding personalities on the Mona campus, his brilliance widely recognised and sometimes resented. I was struck by his intellectual confidence and amused by a verbal playfulness I still consider characteristically Trinidadian. He was already committed to the special importance of the imagination, and wittily dismissive of anyone, including some of his teachers, who seemed to have other priorities. His early poems are often, at least in part, about creativity. “Something’s underground alive” (“The Approach”). The persona in “Remu” (a tide race) declares:

I would write poems like mainsails drawn
up the bent masts of motor schooners
floundering in the remu’s flow:
held clear of that chaos, but quivering,
holding the strain below.
read it all here at CRB

TRIPLE (bup, bup, bup) THREAT BLOWS UP ALICE YARD. BOOM!!!

2010-09-18T12:19:00.000-07:00

Nicholas Haskell and Sheldon Holder

Keshav

Tillah Willah Springer

WHAT?!!! I CAN'T HEAR U...I'm deaf from last night's pounding... hosted by Sheldon "12theband" Holder, DJs: Tillah "WILLAH" Springer, Keshav " LAZABEAM" Singh, fresh from BABYLONDON, and Nicholas ( I have no hype name for him so I'll just make it bold) Haskell blew up the Yard and then some in a music meets art meets groovy scene fest.

Alice Yard is an important centre for musical creativity and exchange, offering rehearsal and performance space to numerous bands and individual musicians.

Fourth Anniversary celebrations have kicked off in Alice Yard and there is more to come...check this out and share it with your friends.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=6746708&id=747915395#!/album.php?aid=285592&id=747915395

Then go check out aliceyard.org for more info it's gonna be a blast

photos by Richard Mark Rawlins

Paramaribo Perspectives - 9 September – 31 October 2010

2010-09-15T07:11:00.000-07:00

Ken Doorson, Neil Fortune, Sri Irodikromo, Jeroen Jongeleen, Jurgen Lisse, Kurt Nahar, Bas Princen, Ravi Rajcoomar, Dhiradj Ramsamoedj, Arnold Schalks, Otto Snoek, George Struikelblok, Roberto Tjon A Meeuw, Hulya Yilmaz, Mels van Zutphen.

On 9 September the Rotterdam exhibition space TENT. started the cultural season with Paramaribo Perspectives, a large group exhibition that brings together a self-aware generation of Surinamese and Dutch artists. The exhibition is the follow-up to a period of cultural exchange between artists from Rotterdam and Paramaribo. Against the background of the current political rift between the Netherlands and Suriname, Paramaribo Perspectives positions the artist as arbitrator of the changing cultural, political and social relationships.

About TENT. Rotterdam

Since 1999 TENT., which is part of Stichting Centrum Beeldende Kunst Rotterdam, has been drawing attention to and presenting significant developments and image-defining artists in the visual arts in Rotterdam. The 1000 m2 exhibition space is located in a characteristic former school building in the cultural Witte de Withstraat. In lively solo and group exhibitions, TENT. presents the many-sided manifestations of contemporary art in Rotterdam. TENT. is part of Stichting Centrum Beeldende Kunst Rotterdam. www.tentrotterdam.nl

Shot in Kingston: The Digital Scene

2010-09-13T15:12:00.001-07:00

The first event in 4x4, Alice Yard's fourth anniversary programme, is Shot in Kingston: The Digital Scene, an exhibition of digital photo- and video-based work by seven younger Jamaican artists.

Opens Wednesday 15 September, 2010, at 8.00 pm.

Shot in Kingston is curated by Christopher Cozier and O'Neil Lawrence, and includes work by:

= Marvin Bartley
= Keisha Castello
= Stefan Clarke
= Marlon James
= O'Neil Lawrence
= Ebony Patterson
= Oneika Russel

All are invited.

For more information on Shot in Kingston and the 4x4 programme, visit the Alice Yard website:

http://aliceyard.blogspot.com/2010/09/alice-yards-fourth-anniversary.html