Do Art

Novelist Amanda Smyth. Photo by Lee Thomas. Her first novel, Black Rock,  was this month nominated for an  NAACP Image Award for best work of fiction by a debut author. Trinidadian/Irish novelist Amanda Smyth will vie for the honour alongside the likes of Whoopi Goldberg and Marlon James (who are also nominated in the literature categories) not to mention dozens nominated in other categories like Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman and Sandra Bullock. As she celebrated, Smyth took a moment to tell PLEASURE about the writing life, her highly anticipated second book, her past career as an actress and the toll of being split between Trinidad and the UK. Her interview is the tenth in a series of interviews on this blog featuring Trinidad artists. FIND the full interview here . READ an extract from Black Rock here .

WHO? I was born in Ireland, on the west coast. My father was a musician and my Trinidadian mother was young and in love, but she was also homesick. When they broke up, my mother decided that we (my brother and I) should go back to Trinidad. But it was the early 70s and there was trouble brewing. So instead, she hopped across the Irish Sea to England. I grew up in Yorkshire, but the three of us came to Trinidad every summer to see my grandparents, cousins, uncles and aunts. I always hated leaving. I still hate leaving. I’m really pleased that my husband, Lee, loves Trinidad, too. That could’ve been tricky. WHAT? I’m sure there was a high price for this kind of life – one foot in England and one in Trinidad. And in some ways we’re still paying it now. Our family is scattered, and that’s tough when something happens - good or bad, because you want to share it with them. What to do? WHEN+WHERE? I was an actress in my twenties, in TV and commercials. I was in a movie called Savage Hearts (1...

The novel's cover is a detail from 'Grand Rivere' (2001-2002) by Trinidad-based British artist Peter Doig.  "There were no answers. I had nothing. There was only heat and the bright light that made that kind of heat. There was no shade, nowhere to rest, nowhere that the sun was not. You follow your life, you don't lead your life. I could sing with pain. Sing so high, high, high. Would my mother hear my singing? Once I had nothing. Now I had less than nothing. My whole life. My whole life I wanted to know my father. I wanted him more than anybody. More that Dr Emmanuel Rodiguez. I shall never know happiness. The light was on the other side of the world, in Southhampton, England. All my life I stepped towards it, little steps. I was halfway there and then I sank. The light pulled me from my darkness. I remembered the light when everything was bad. And now you put out the light. Just like that. I had less than nothing. It couldn't be like this. It couldn't be ...

The film allows Eastwood to cast a major white actor alongside Freeman Back in 2008, acclaimed black director Spike Lee accused Clint Eastwood of not having enough black actors in his films. Eastwood had made two movies about Iwo Jima back to back and not a single black soldier was featured in either, Lee noted. Eastwood's response? "A guy like him should shut his face," he told The Guardian . He then went on to direct Gran Torino , a film about an elderly, racist man, who learns to overcome his racial prejudices. That film, which is actually Eastwood's finest after Unforgiven,  appeared to be a response to Lee's allegations. It's in this context that Eastwood's latest, a biopic of South African legend Nelson Mandela, arrives. Why we haven't seen a major Hollywood Mandela biopic up until now is baffling. After all, some far less important and obscure people have had films of their lives made. Perhaps marketers did not think they could find a way to sel...

arte páginas personales

Detail from Blue Shade by Romare Bearden 1972 © Romare Bearden Foundation/DACS, London/VAGA, New York 2009 An exhibition, featuring artists ranging from Trinidadian Christopher Cozier to American Kara Walker,  opens today at the Tate Liverpool, UK. "Afro Modern: Journeys through the Black Atlantic explores the impact of different black cultures from around the Atlantic on art from the early twentieth-century to today. The exhibition takes its inspiration from Paul Gilroy's influential book The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness 1993. It features over 140 works by more than 60 artists. Gilroy used the term 'The Black Atlantic' to describe the transmission of black cultures around the Atlantic, and the instances of cultural hybridity, that occurred as a result of transatlantic slavery and its legacy. Afro Modern: Journeys through the Black Atlantic reflects Gilroy's idea of the Atlantic Ocean as a 'continent in negative', offering a network c...

A Tate employee looks at 'Afro Sunrise' (2002-2003). Photo by Felix Clay. Trinidad-based British painter Chris Ofili has a show at the Tate Modern in London this month. The exhibition features 40 paintings as well as pencil colours and watercolours and opens today. SEE more images  here . READ more here .

3 Canal's Wendell Manwarren  Carnival used to have an edge. It used to terrify, fascinate, enrapture. Go back in history and witness the “Jamette” carnival. “Around the 1860’s the Carnival came to have a distinct character, the ‘Jamette’ carnival,” notes historian Bridget Brereton in The Trinidad Carnival in the Late Nineteenth Century . “The jamettes who were the band members were the singers, dancers, stickmen, prostitutes, pimps and “bad johns” in general. They boasted of their skill and bravery, verbal wit, talent in song, dance and drumming, their indifference to the law, their sexual prowess, their familiarity with jail and sometimes their contempt for the church. In short, they reversed the canons of respectability, the norms of the superstructure.” Rapso band 3 Canal has, over a decade, built a strong following with its distinctive blend of socio-political soca and rap. Amidst the increasingly anonymous soca now being produced annually for Carnival, the band has become a ra...

. lilac wine .

The stars: Shahrukh Khan and Sushmita Sen (who was robbed of her Miss Universe jewels on a visit to TT more than a decade ago) The synopsis for Dulha Mil Gaya-- which was filmed on location in Trinidad -- on the Movietowne website reads:  "Dulha Mil Gaya is a heart-warming take on four individuals each of whom have different takes on relationships in their lives. When paths cross for these four characters, fireworks go off and they not only land up influencing each other with their outlook on relationships but also get influenced themselves and learn a whole new meaning of the term. Through the interwoven love stories of Donsai, Samarpreet, PRG and Shimmer, Dulha Mil Gaya with the help of humour, music, emotions and style attempts to unlearn the norms of love and relationships in the present day world. A satiating romantic experience that promises to bring more than a smile to your face." That's right folks, there's a character named Shimmer. And she literally shim...

READ more here .

'At the gate, Petit Valley', circa 1980, watercolour. They linger in the shadow of his accomplishments as a poet. These delicate watercolours and oil paintings that drape the walls of this small room. Many have come out today to listen to Walcott do a reading across the street from here, but few have ventured to the the principal's office of the University of the West Indies, St Augustine, Trinidad; to this small exhibition of private family paintings by a man whose reputation as a world-class poet bedazzles. But the private family paintings here are far from all of that. They tell a different story; one rarely glimpsed and appreciated. For while Walcott--who at the date of this post celebrates his 80th birthday--may be remembered for his poetry, these pieces, I think, deserve to be rememembered for their quiet stylistic flair and their testimony to the talents of a man perhaps more read than understood. Undoubtedly he is more of a poet than a painter, but he is a painter o...

Detail from 'Election Gimmick', one in Sean Thompson's series,  Political Landscape . "Elections in Trinidad is really interesting. We beg politicians for basic necessities for years but only around election time we would see these issues being 'halfway' addressed. They pave roads and clean streets in an attempt to silence us and convince us to vote for them, but isn't it ironic that the same index finger they use to silence us, is the same finger we use to vote for them..."  FROM Sean Thompson's blog . What can I say? Elections are in the air this weekend.

WHO? I am the fourth child, the only daughter among five sons. I like to blame my outgoing and aggressive attitude on my brothers. I sometimes call myself by the artist name AMMA. It stands for 'Ancient Morals with Modern Attitude'. I was born in Paradise Heights Morvant, but lived most of my life in St. Joseph, Trinidad. WHAT? I hope someday that my work will be identified simply by the mention of my name. Until then, I am interested in paper sculpture, glass mono prints and film/photography. Connectivity is my mantra - it is how I develop my concepts. WHEN+WHERE? I started my affair with art at age seven. I always knew that I wanted to be an artist, but it has not been easy. I went to El Dorado Secondary School-yep, think of the brown uniform! I decided against ‘A' level art and entered the University of the West Indies in the Visual Arts certificate programme. I hope to graduate this year with a BA in Visual Arts. I have been around for years, taking part in several join...

Actress Jiang Jie in a production still from film-maker Yao Ramesar's latest project  Stranger in Paradise . Photo by Wayne Cezair.(Below) On location with Ramesar. FIND out more about the film in an interview with Ramesar here .

WHO? I was born in Tamale, Ghana, in West Africa to a Jamaican mother from Kingston proper and a Trinidadian father from Rousillac in south Trinidad. Yao is the first name I was given in life by the Twi nurses in the hospital. It means Thursday born, but it is now a joke to my new Chinese friends because it reminds them of Yao Ming (who appears to be, for them, the most famous person after Chairman Mao, which is, incidentally, what Derek Walcott insists on calling me). My father was driving a cane truck and weighing cane at an age which would nowadays fall foul of child labour laws, and had his first pair of real shoes at 19. My mother and her siblings at that time were rubbing bread on the glass of a locked safe containing a block of cheese that they could see through one pane.... So, I am that. My mother has traced her roots in the Caribbean to Ghana (she hadn't known about this when she first made her way there) to one sole person: someone by the name of...

BY LESEDI TIDD* Cover of Walter Kirn's novel, on which the film is based. Up In The Air follows American Ryan Bingham, played by George Clooney; a near-nomadic, outsourced downsizer (oh the times we live in!) who travels all across the lower 48 states doing the dirty work of serving employees severance packages while glazing over the shame of termination, all with the charm and charisma of the average, garden-variety, talking snake. It is 2009, the recession has hit and business has never been better; Ryan loves his job. Charming and sophisticated, he is a man unfettered who comforts himself in his ability to not only diffuse the worst of situations, but to walk away from them entirely. Enter Alex (Vera Farmiga), a beautifully seasoned, condescendingly intelligent, career-oriented woman; a love interest so convenient it's almost masturbatory. She herself is caught up in a web of cross country flight paths and can barely bring herself to be tethered by anything at all. They int...

Adventures in design: Lo digital es arte?

black on white on black

From Luis Vasquez la Roche. ENTER  the hospital  here . WATCH a therapeutic video here .

The unspeakable grief. What you can do . Image a detail of a photo by Christopher Cozier on a trip to Haiti.

Flyer for upcoming art installation at Alice Yard (incidentally done by your trusty PLEASURE blogger Andre Bagoo). FROM THE ORGANISERS: CONES : an interactive exhibition of colour and light transparency. Two consecutive days before opening night visitors will be given the opportunity to design and paint on cones.Wednesday 20th and Thursday 21st at ALICE YARD   , daily 12pm - 7pm. Walk with a paint brush. The cone is one of the basic building blocks of form construction and seeing is one of the processes of visual art. CONES is a visual link between the cone shape and seeing, an interactive exhibition of colour and light transparency.

_guroga (2010) - Venezuela

The Republic has hosted people, art. Photo by Andre Bagoo. Just off the insane asylum in St Ann's, at a bend on Sydenham Avenue, is a small gingerbreadish house with a red door. The fretwork is painted primary school green, the walls are the colour of body lotion. There are burglar-proof iron grilles and wooden louvres. 'The Republic of Sydenham', which opens up inside into several rooms, including an incredible attic, has, over the last few years, been a home for art, music, dance, critical discourse and fete. It is currently the home for New York/Trinidadian based dancer Makeda Thomas and her Roots and Wings Movement which has hosted a dance and performance institute there. Last year, the space opened a modest art gallery. Countless musicians, including LAZA beam, Coreysan, Sheldon Holder and Sheldon Blackman, have also performed in its walls. For many, The Republic has been a regular stop; an alternative to places like Zen. I've attended  some great limes and partie...

Belarusian poet Valzhyna Mort in discussion with editor Nicholas Laughlin “I COME from a Russian speaking family so I grew up speaking Russian. But I never wrote in the Russian language, I always wrote in Belarusian,” explains Belarusian poet Valzhyna Mort as she stands at the centre of a crowd gathered at Alice Yard, the contemporary arts space. “My big issue was being situated in-between Russian and Belarusian. For me, language is something that should be overcome in poetry and that’s why the disadvantage of being torn between languages later becomes an advantage because it helps to focus on trying to go beyond it and I think that’s what poetry does ultimately.” Mort, one of the first—if not the first—Belarusian poets to visit this country, was chosen to be among the first two writers in residence at Alice Yard which has hosted events featuring poets, musicians and other artistes for more than three years at Roberts Street, Woodbrook. On Wednesday, Mort and fellow writer in residence...

Mani ANGEL i mani noi Tengono le mani su di noi ANGELI angeli ANGELI tengono le mani su di noi tengono tengono angeli mani noi VOI moi angeloi manu tenet Consigli per il 2010. Dedicato a chi di inviti a mostre e progetti artistici non ne può più e a chi si sente “rallentato o appesantito da cattive tossine artistiche” che gli impediscono di vivere a pieno e sanamente la propria creatività… Da un’idea di Vittore Baroni, storico mail artist italiano, ART DETOX 2010 si propone come la perfetta terapia per un anno di disintossicazione artistica, a portatat di tutti. Doveroso segnalarlo in questo inizio di gennaio, visto che partecipare alle sedute è facilissimo, anzi chi lo volesse può diventare parte attiva del progetto: il punto di partenza è la consapevolezza (e la voglia) di rimuovere quegli impedimenti, quei rifiuti, quegli eccessi che si frappongono fra noi e il vivere in modo sano ed equilibrato la nostra vita artistica o creativa. Ogni qualvolta due artisti si incontreranno nel ...

One of the baffling notes at Ashraph's studio in Woodbrook, Port of Spain. The studio on Roberts Street, Woodbrook, is filled with picture frames. A group of people, fresh from a red wine-infused literary event at the nearby Alice Yard that evening, are looking around, playing with things.  But on a table at the far end of the room, laying like the abandoned robe of the bad witch in The Wizard of Oz , is a costume of some sort. What strange things this man, framemaker and artist Ashraph, has in his studio! The robe is like a graduation gown, meets vampire cape, meets barrister's court costume. But there are disturbing little clues about this mystery, too, all over the studio. What is going on here? On the wall at another end of the room are cryptic drawings, small frantic notes, with diagrams and slogans. Has Ashraph lost it? No, he has not. It appears as though he--and a band of mysterious confederates--are bringing out a Carnival band for 2010. Last year, he ...