The tourist lathe

Just at the corner of Prince street, Port of Spain, there is a tourist gift shop that sells a number of memorabilia items related to Trinidad and Tobago. From pepper condiments to wood carvings and an artist with an ingenuous skill to the front of the store. What he is doing is carving the surface of a calabash with a common knife utensil and producing a variety of decorative imagery that makes up the culture of Trinidad and Tobago or the Caribbean.

There is the Hibiscus flower with the Hummingbird, the palm trees at sunset and a panman with his steelband drums. The artist is faster than a lathe as the short video uncovers.

In Caribbean folklore, to drink water from the shell of the calabash may reduce the discomfort of menstruating….the words from the human lathe as he whizzed away at his calabash.

Home ceramics

As Christmas approaches in Trinidad, West Indies, many artisans are having an open house to clear the stock of items they may have in surplus during the course of the year. This the an opportunity for buyers to purchase a personal work that may be higher in price at an Exhibition.

Three ceramicists, Bunty O’ Connor, Adam Williams and Luisa Cacciotti have come together to show their ceramic work. In general, the pieces on display are usable stoneware with a flare of artistic motifs surrounding fruits, figures and glazes.

Ms. Cacciotti explained that she imports her clay due to the tedious process it takes to purify local clay. The clay needs to be washed, and sifted to remove an sediments it may contain or air. As with the latter, if air is present in a piece, it can explode during the firing stage.

Mr. Williams in particular showed the process which he glazes and fires his porcelain and the results are an array of light hearted whimsical mugs, cups and port wine vessels. Open house; Ceramics by Bunt O’ Connor, Adam Williams and Luisa Cacciotti, Till December 2nd, 2007. Enquires regarding this work

My other Bread and Butter – Susan Dayal

Suzy Dayal – Am I an Artist or am I an Artisan?

At the Horizons Gallery in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, the wire sculptor, Susan Dayal has her work on show. The gallery has made an adjustment for this exhibition as parts of the space are barred off. The wall partitions are painted in white, and Ms. Dayal’s masks and busts surround the room under lighting which has been carefully orchestrated. The art community has come out to support Ms. Dayal’s efforts fully, there is hardly any breathing space.

This has been a two year journey, Ms. Dayal says as she explains the process, and the theme which emerged from a strand of wire and developed into a cage of sorts. Each corset is constructed by measurements taken from her body, and the ribs are mashed to form a figure adorned with flowers and leaves. Anthuriums are her choice, aluminum, galvanize and copper are her materials.

Titled, Third Eye Flowering, the exhibition also shows a series of lotus flowers worked in copper. Parts of the copper are beaten to add an aesthetic to it, and the artist uses a spiral markings to fan out the membrane of the shape. From its core, facets and tubing are interweave to decorate each part. The show includes fourteen facial masks which take on the look of a Jester, and three large body corsets that combine an element of the traditional Fancy Sailor, a carnival character to Trinidad and Tobago. But this is by coincidence as the work just developed into those familiar forms.

For many years Susan Dayal has debated over the difference between art and craft. It is her craft that brings in her earnings. Nevertheless, both practices take the same amount of energy. Yet they can vary in detail, complexity and price. The question here is what determines it? This is the journey to which she must decide. Am I an Artist or am I an Artisan? The work at the show could be considered as decorative craft Art, but the large cage corsets seem to have an independent strength, a kind of offering of the shell of oneself to another.

There has been some discussion regarding the direction or stagnation that Ms. Dayal finds herself. The body torso has become her signature since it was produced in 1998 at the Lips, Sticks and Marks exhibition. Then, it had an edge to it. One recalls, the cage’s labia was formed as jagged sheets of metal. She also had applied performance with her early dress piece using a crinoline shaped structure as a body suit. But after a decade, she is stuck with the same idea and seems unable to connect the dots which can produce work beyond the decorative element. Work more daring, more flexible, more polished or statuettes in nature.

Definition: Craft – Loose and generally crude in its construction. Art – Clean and seamless in its form and construction.

Third Eye Flowering
Susan Dayal At Horizons Gallery, Trinidad, West Indies continues till the 27th October, 2007

The National Guild of Decoupeurs

 

This is a map of Trinidad made by the craft of Decoupage. You may see many works of a sort hung in living rooms across the nation, Trinidad and Tobago. Popular imagery are flowers and the Lord’s pray made by the lady of the house or as a gift given on a special occasion. It is an art form which entails pasting paper cut-outs which are then glued to a treated plaque of wood.

The outer edges of the work above shows the hacked indents from a hammer and this was perhaps to give a patina of old world charm. It also showed the passion in which the artist attempted to produce the most authentic work gauging from the group of housewives who participated in the project. The map has been preserved by several coats of varnish or lacquer but the aging has somewhat dulled the finish. It should be noted that parts of the paper had been deliberately tarnished or burnt to give the look of a historic document preserved under cakes of varnish.