Publisher of Draconian Switch and playing its part in the documentation of the exciting contemporary art scene of Trinidad and Tobago. View the site www.artzpub.com join the group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=30138216896
The six winners of the 2010 Commonwealth Connections international arts residencies are as follows:
Pakistani painter Irfan Hasan, a graduate in the art of miniature painting, fuses his strong skills with original ideas to create contemporary paintings which are part social commentary, part philosophical enquiry. His intention is to base himself at the Bengal School of Arts in Kolkata, India, to explore other media, and to work with well-known contemporary and traditional Indian artists.
Marlon Griffith from Trinidad and Tobago is an artist who connects visual art with the public performance based on Trinidad Carnival, fusing together the cultural, spiritual and political. During his residency in the Bahamas he plans to create work with communities on the outskirts of Nassau as part of the local performing visual tradition of Junkanoo.
Australian artist Krishna Nadow-Ryall, whose ancestors came from Vanuatu, works in a wide range of media including sculpture, installation, digital media and photography. She often creates site-specific works that fuse Pacific patterns with western motif. She will return to Vanuatu to connect with her heritage, engage with local artists and bring back elements of traditional cultures to pass on to younger Australian South Sea Islanders.
Yasmin Jahan Nupur from Bangladesh produces works which are a combination of photography, painting, video and performance installation. She is planning to visit Mauritius and work with local artists to encourage dialogue around social issues, including gender and religious co-operation.
Self-taught sculptor Peter Paul Oloya is a former child soldier from Uganda who was abducted from his home at the age of 11. He now promotes art as a catalyst for social change and a solution to community problems. He will visit Nigeria to work with different communities to help promote a culture of peace, non violence and co-existence.
British artist Emma Smith is planning a residency in Kenya, using her inter-disciplinary and collaborative work, which includes events, encounters, performance, participation and photography, to explore the art of the everyday, working collaboratively with Kenyan artists and the local community.
http://www.commonwealthfoundation.com/Howwedeliver/Prizes/CommonwealthConnections/2010winners
by on July 20, 2010
Like a complicated multiple-exposure shot in an old avant-garde film, Christopher Cozier’s Now Showing conjures up an atmosphere of both nostalgia and sinister comedy. The eye doesn’t know where to focus first. The imagery derives from the artist’s private vocabulary — as he explains in a series of notes — but refers to a familiar gritty urban Caribbean space you could call Kingston or Georgetown or Nassau, though in this case the specific location is Port of Spain.
In his sardonic late-70s poem “The Spoiler’s Return”, Derek Walcott imagined the shade of the calypsonian on leave from Hades — “I decompose, but I composing still” — gazing down from the heights of Laventille across his former hometown. Through the eyes of his narrator, Walcott builds up an almost cinematic portrait of the city. Spoiler remarks:
all Port of Spain is a twelve-thirty show,
some playing Kojak, some Fidel Castro . . .read it all here at CRB
The launch of Now Showing on 16 July, 2010, is covered in issue 13 of Draconian Switch. Filmmaker Mariel Brown has made a short documentary about the creation of the work.
"Now Showing": Signs and Stories in Christopher Cozier's Art from Mariel Brown on Vimeo.
A short independent film which follows Trinidadian visual artist, Christopher Cozier, as he works on a commissioned limited edition print for the Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival. Cozier, at work in his studio, describes his life's work to find a visual vocabulary with which he can tell his own stories.
A film by Mariel Brown with Richard Rawlins. Special thanks to Marlon Darbeau and Tracy Hutchings.
