The Visual Arts Unit of UWI’s Department of Creative and Festival Arts took the work of its degree students to the National Museum last Wednesday and new life found accommodating space amidst the fossils and ancient artefacts.
Up the steep, unfriendly staircase and through the doorway Sade O’Brien’s black, leaky plastic bags had at first missed their respective marks—coloured Kool-Aid in three glass cases. ‘Daddy’, is what she calls it. The dripping water, his strength and vibrancy leaving. The Kool-Aid and Tang, the fluids of his body fusing and overflowing and losing their character as the water drips.
This provocative piece relates the artist’s lingering remorse upon the death of her father as a result of “multiple health complications” on December 17, 2016.
Turn left on entering and there is also Sharon Vidale’s ‘Centibus Parasitica Inacessabilis Delecti’ plastic and ink on a standing mirror. Looks like dried mucous mounted with Scotch Tape on a bedroom mirror. The piece achieves the impact of discomfort and revulsion.
“This project,” says Vidale, “began with thoughts on what conditions cause human beings to exhibit characteristics of parasites—parasitica inacessabilis delicti.”
Then there’s Aimee Forbes’s ‘Resurrection’—not apparently themed for seasonal consumption, but as a reflection on conflicted faith and unmet expectation. The work comprises four wooden frames, fabric, twine and canvas that evolve from a splash of red on canvas to a virtually empty frame.
Forbes says her relationship with God “is the driving force behind my art.” Yet, there are more questions than resolved tensions. The frames disintegrate, rather than grow into something new. “I dismantled, tore and folded, but found it difficult to shape or re-gather into a presentable form.”
Alicia Greene wrestles with some of the same thoughts. ‘Release’ is created from twisted palm leaves, twine and canvas thread. “This sculpture,” she says, is my attempt to liberate myself from the trauma I experienced as a child.”
In the end, she concedes that interpretation of the piece ought to be left to the viewer. There are several layers though, and you would have to read her explanation to begin the process. Very interesting.
Then comes Anthony Jaboolal’s black and white photography which, he explains, grew out of an interest in quite different media—graphite, acrylic paints and ink. Then came an interest in henna and the use of the human body as a canvass, eventually captured through the lens of a camera.
Cass’Mosha Amoroso-Centeno’s Untitled piece done with red sand, wood glue, acrylic paint and wood is not easy to get straight away, such is the intentional inconsonance of shapes and symmetry. This, the artist suggests, carries a somewhat revolutionary social message that contests the rigidity and order of authority.
“There is a different response when the viewer confronts straight lines or geometric shapes as opposed to freeform shapes,” he says. “We tend to give more esteem to these structural forms and dis-credit the intent of organic forms.” Message received, young artist.
Cheryl Wight’s ‘Redemption’ (12x63 feet) fills a disproportionate space in the room in red fabric and thread. “It creates a search for an avenue to escape, yet to look up with outstretched arms,” she says.
Curtis Thomas’s ‘Undone’ also induces space as a medium on its own to unite seemingly disparate elements. Done in dark resin and lace, Thomas hopes the work is capable of creating “optical tension” while depicting a “reclining female figure, made entirely of lace and resin.”
“In creating the work, my goal is to shine a light on the issue of depression,” he explains.
Back downstairs, Xala Ramesar’s ‘Parallaxis’ seeks to “create spaces that use materials or technologies as lenses through which alternate, subjective realities can be viewed.” Her chosen media—nylon fabric, a projector and a virtual reality headset.
The colourful projected image seems like a solitary house on a hill. Splashes of bright colours against soft, moving light. Don the headset at your peril.
“The distortion of certain elements of space is used to disorient the viewer in a way that is parallel to the unsettling feeling or derealisation,” she explains.
It is art not meant for explanation. It is art meant to be experienced.
Other outstanding works came from Fine Art students Ariel Francis, Curtis Thomas, Kimoi Hamid, Onella Augustine, Robert Gooindo, Sade O’Brien and Sarah Josanne Katwaroo. There were also striking exhibits from Design students Brent Bristol, Colleen Kewley, Ishtika Bharat, Jessica Francis, Kadine Antoine, Rafeeyah Shah, Ruqayyah Mohammed, Safiyyah Shah and Tevin Charles.
The DCFA Visual Arts Unit has assembled some of the best emerging young artists of our time and space for this year’s exhibition which runs until April 13. Theirs is a quite revolutionary voice. A worthwhile experience for those with an interest in witnessing some inconvenient truths.
