Galvanize

"Make a space": Galvanize in the Trinidad and Tobago Review

2006-11-09T12:36:00.000-04:00

The following dialogue between Christopher Cozier and Nicholas Laughlin appears in the November 2006 Trinidad and Tobago Review

"What is 'Caribbean' art? ... What should it look like, sound like, feel like? Who decides? Who is paying attention? Is the work of contemporary artists in Trinidad and Tobago really registering with an audience? Where? When? How? Or are these artists 'visibly absent', there-but-not-there, eluded by a meaningful critical response, invisible to conventional expectations of what Caribbean art practice should be?"
-- From the brief statement in the Galvanize leaflet distributed at all events

Nicholas Laughlin: We began Galvanize with questions, and the sense that this whole initiative was an experiment. We emphasised the improvisatory, the spontaneous, the investigative. True, this was partly from necessity -- the whole thing was pulled together with limited resources and often volunteer effort. We were sort of making it up as we went along. As Steve Ouditt and others have suggested, there's a way in which Galvanize was (or is) not a series of events, or an engine for producing artworks, but a kind of collective work in itself, with all the participants as co-creators.

Christopher Cozier: This is how I have always seen contemporary art practice in this country, since the early 80s. At best, the practice could be a reflection of the type of democracy we live in, or ask questions about the prospect of real democracy as a space of possibility: which ideas are allowed, who gets to speak, and under what kinds of circumstances? Who has permission?

For me, the failure or success of Galvanize as a creative process will be determined by what kinds of conversations we will be having next year, and the following.

NL: I suppose the timing -- Galvanize opened a week before Carifesta -- made it inevitable that people would see it as a fringe event. But we tried to make it clear from the beginning that this was an independent effort driven by urgencies with no direct connection to Carifesta. I was fascinated by the reactions of some of the cultural authorities within the Carifesta machine.

"I don't know what Galvanize is about. Even if Galvanize was something of significance within the art world, that is also our arts. In a kind of way, Carifesta has given us the occasion, the focus, and countless peoples in the communities. They can’t be compared. One is a Caribbean festival. Galvanize is a Trinidadian -- and not even a full Trinidad [festival]. What tells us Galvanize represents Trinidad and Tobago?"
— Earl Lovelace, Carifesta IX artistic director, in an interview with B.C. Pires, Sunday Express, 24 September, 2006

"When we don't establish a kind of structure or continuity you have a breakaway almost renegade attitude," he said, making reference to the ongoing Galvanize project initiated by a group of young artists.
He says the project excludes the opinions of the elders and so little can be learnt from its participants....
"We are growing up without mentors because we have trained our minds to be renegades, so we rebel against anything."
— Leroy Clarke, quoted in a feature by Michael Mondezie headlined "At home with the master artist", Sunday Express, 15 October, 2006

CC: You just said it -- they are playing out their roles as "cultural authorities". I know this sounds like a line from Valentino's "Life Is a Stage". Are they continuously marking out a territorial space, like a game of pitch? So they made their ring in the dirt, and their pockets are bulging with marbles. For generations we have been silently watching their game. Perhaps the era in which they grew up created that need to assert and defend that space. But there is a big enough patch of dirt. If they want to continue playing for bokey over there -- fine. Perhaps we want to play Three Hole or Long Dab instead. Maybe current generations are playing Grand Theft Auto and Sim City, and don't want to get their brands muddy.

But when did pursuing an initiative on one's own, rather than just talking and talking, or waiting around on others for handouts, become rebellion?

Galvanize is a modest endeavour that is, for now, looking outwards from Port of Spain. Carifesta was based on the Georgetown conversations in the early 70s, and was an attempt at regional cultural integration regionally, since new flags were going up.

NL: The theme of Galvanize 2006 was "visibly absent", a phrase invented by Peter Doig to describe the contemporary art scene in Trinidad -- it applies as well to musicians, writers, and others -- artists who are very present and hard at work, but somehow not registering with local audiences, local "cultural authorities", the local marketplace. Galvanize tried to create a platform for these "emerging" artists, a space where they could engage with unconventional audiences in unconventional ways.

We took the art out of the gallery space and put it in public locations -- in the Savannah, on walls around town, in a tattoo parlour, the entrance to a dancehall. Conversely, we brought a band that usually plays in dark, smoky bars into a gallery at CCA, and another to a Woodbrook backyard. We asked newspaper columnists to discuss whether their writing could be "literature".

"One of the main problems regarding the audience for contemporary art in Trinidad is the perception that contemporary art is in a hierarchy above other creative production. This myth is supported by the way institutions create a type of inclusion/exclusion of ideas to facilitate their own agendas, therefore retarding the free movement of ideas and criticisms. More importantly, the artists become resentful and lack the confidence to produce. If we dispel this myth, we will see more art production emanating in some very unusual places. When I was in Cuba I was invited to artists' projects in people's living rooms (eg Espacio Aglutinador), on the streets, in hospitals, etc. I believe it is organic by nature."
-- Mario Lewis

NL: I like the distinction you made early on: that we were not grabbing a space -- which implies taking it from someone else -- but making our own.

CC: We are not an emerging or developing culture or context. This is not a little game of catch-up with an allegedly more developed circumstance. To think like that would be to think like Columbus, in the tradition of those scamps throughout our history who arrived here and said there is nothing. Nothing for who?

We are merely moving along with our business as practitioners. The space exists. Artists have been doing the work and building the dialogue, but expectations on the part of the public and local experts have not responded at the same rate. We are doing our thing -- it is not made real by who happens to feel like looking for the moment.

See Galvanize, then, as simply underscoring the fact that there is a history and dialogue and context to which we responding. Where did CCA come from, what created that need? To what questions is it responding, and why? And, by extension, why have Galvanize now?

I was excited to see a new generation of people getting the kind of support and encouragement I did not have when my practice became more investigative and thus ambitious.

NL: "Conversation" has been a key term in Galvanize -- the idea that it's useful to pay attention to each other, for artists to enter into dialogues with each other, artists with writers, musicians with architects, everyone with their audiences. No soapboxes or bestowing of titles like "master artist", but a real curiosity about the work.

CC: In terms of my own practice and the entire contemporary scene, I feel "conversation" is a key word. It looks beyond cultural pedagogy. It's about listening and sharing. The real subject of Galvanize is the collaboration and mutual support among the participants, the process. People came and participated. That is something more than the "nothing" everyone gets well rewarded for advocating.
By the time this text is published, there will have been five thousand visits to the Galvanize website?

NL: From thirty or forty countries at least. The conversation is also happening through our web presence -- the Galvanize blog and Flickr set -- which makes the initiative visible to a much bigger international audience. We used these online tools for expediency in the first place, but we've broken some interesting ground. The UK Guardian ran a story the other week suggesting that curators might soon be using Flickr's image-hosting service to curate online exhibitions. We've already done that.

CC: For contemporary Trinidadian artists, ideas and exchanges are happening on a much larger international platform. Artists from Trinidad are showing and giving lectures in New York, Oslo, South Africa, Japan, Brazil, London, and so on. It's not even news anymore. It's just what they do as professionals. We are simply moving along in that larger historical conversation.

Conversation: What Next?

2006-10-30T23:33:00.000-04:00

At the end of its six-week programme, what has Galvanize achieved?

Galvanize 2006 provided a platform for twenty different projects or events, and many hours of conversation, both formal and informal. Hundreds of people joined our audiences, and thousands encountered Galvanize projects in the public spaces of Port of Spain. Many more people engaged with the Galvanize initiative via the blog and Flickr set. What is the lasting value of these interactions? What has Galvanize really meant to its participants? Most important, where does Galvanize go next?

The concluding event in the Galvanize 2006 programme is an open conversation addressing these and other questions. The Galvanize advisory team--artists Mario Lewis, Christopher Cozier, Steve Ouditt, and Peter Doig, CCA director Charlotte Elias, and writer and editor Nicholas Laughlin--will be joined by architect Sean Leonard and critic and curator Kevin Power in an assessment of the 2006 programme and a discussion of possible plans for the future. As at all Galvanize events, audience participation is very welcome. The team particularly hopes that members of the public who have attended Galvanize events will come out to share their opinions and ideas. All are invited.

After the conversation, there will be a chance to relax, hang out, and celebrate the end of the Galvanize 2006 programme.

The Galvanize team is particularly pleased that Dr Kevin Power will be joining this concluding conversation. Power holds the chair of North American literature at the University of Alicante, and is a former sub-director of conservation, research, and outreach at the Museo Nacional Centor de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid. He is the author of numerous books, essays, and articles, as well as four volumes of poems, and has curated twelve exhibitions, including shows focusing on work by Cuban and Puerto Rican artists.

What Next? Galvanize Post-Mortem will be held on Thursday 2 November, 2006, at 6.30 pm, in the InterAmericas Space at CCA7

Date change for "What Next?"

2006-10-24T11:07:00.000-04:00

The final event in the Galvanize 2006 programme, the conversation titled "What Next?: Galvanize Post-Mortem", has been postponed from Thursday 26 October to Thursday 2 November. The time and place remain the same: 6.30 pm, at the InterAmericas Space at CCA7. Further notes on "What Next?" will be posted soon on the Galvanize blog.

Conversation: Monsters and Other Animals: Poems and Fictions

2006-10-18T13:53:00.000-04:00

James Christopher Aboud, Vahni Capildeo, and Anu Lakhan

"Without Lagahoo, water has no shape,
But Lagahoo takes his shape from the water...."

"The innocence of Monsters is that they are born old...."

"In the early stages her skin seemed to be shrinking, an insistent tingling accompanied the sensation that her skin no longer fit.... A network of lines appeared. Like a net, said Mother. No, she said, like scales...."

"Monsters and Other Animals: Poems and Fictions" brings together poet James Christopher Aboud and poet and fiction writer Anu Lakhan to read from their recent work, and engage with Nicholas Laughlin in a public conversation. The event will also include a reading from the poems of Vahni Capildeo, who is unable to appear in person, but who will have a virtual presence through her work.

Why have these writers chosen their particular forms, and what are their influences? Where do they fit in the tradition of Trinidadian or Caribbean writing--if they do fit? Why does the theme of the "monster", of metamorphosis, recur in their work? Who is the "monster"? Is every writer a "monster" of some kind?

Bios: James Christopher Aboud has published two collections of poems: The Stone Rose (1986) and Lagahoo Poems (2004). * Vahni Capildeo has published one full-length collection of poems, No Traveller Returns (2003), and a poetry chapbook, Person Animal Figure (2005). * Anu Lakhan writes about books and food for The Caribbean Review of Books and Caribbean Beat. She also writes fiction and poems.

Monsters and Other Animals: Fictions and Poems will be held on Thursday 19 October, 2006, at 6.30 pm, in the InterAmericas Space at CCA7

Performance: "Meta-Osmotica": Akuzuru

2006-10-16T19:13:00.000-04:00

Akuzuru at work on her Galvanize project Atonement for Our Transgressions

"Meta-Osmotica", a "sculpture performance" by artist Akuzuru, is a continuation of her recently mounted public installation Atonement for Our Transgressions.

"'Meta-Osmotica' seeks to deal with the beginnings. It will be a dark performance, a sculptural interplay between corporeality and the cosmos. The artist will be attired completely in black, surrounded by a mound of 'umbilical rope' made from pieces of used clothing tied together, with a lone lit candle, trying to 'birth forth'. An excerpt from John Coltrane's classic 'A Love Supreme' will pervade the spatial texture to unite with gesture. This is a sensorial piece which deals with past experiential associations, political stagnation on the part of the people, unnecessary material excesses, and of course atonement."

Meta-Osmotica will be performed on Tuesday 17 October, 2006, at 6.30 pm, on the outdoor stage at Form and Function Design, 5B Gaston Johnston Street, Woodbrook.

Retrospective: Design Works by Illya Furlonge-Walker

2006-10-16T07:51:00.000-04:00

"Slow Wine", a conceptual sketch from the notebooks of Illya Furlonge-Walker

Illya Furlonge-Walker (1967-2006) pursued graphic design with one eye on the classic line-work of Lubalin and Chermayeff and another on the liberating potential of the computer. His work was perfectly capable of speaking for itself, but in a world cluttered with faux art and computer assisted design, Illya articulated his vision with increasing fluency and persuasive power to a growing range of clients who benefited from his passion for clarity in communication.

In a short but intense life, he began as a freelancer, hand-painting stylish and witty t-shirt designs that embraced the styles of the day and deftly turned them upside down with his quirky sense of irony. He went on to work in television, styling computer graphics for the new CCN TV6, pushed further into graphic design, and finally, paring away all except the essential, settled into adulthood as a father and husband, founding Form and Function Design as the vehicle for his vision of art in the service of commerce.

His legacy is a remarkable and mature collection of corporate ID designs, annual reports, posters, and album jackets that demarcate a high-water mark in the design evolution of Trinidad and Tobago. He was influenced in his career path by the photographer Mark Lyndersay, and artists and designers Eddie Bowen, Steve Ouditt, Christopher Cozier, and Russel Halfhide.

A retrospective of Illya Furlonge-Walker's work, from completed design marks and annual reports to quirky sketch materials and concept ideas from his many notebooks, will be on display at Form and Function Design, 5B Gaston Johnston Street, Woodbrook, from 17 to 26 October, 2006. The exhibition, curated by Mark Lyndersay, opens with an informal launch on Tuesday 17 October at 6.30 pm.

Illya Furlonge-Walker, photographed by Mark Lyndersay

Visibly Absent 1.3: Griffith, Noel, Smailes

2006-10-15T14:11:00.000-04:00

At the core of Galvanize is "Visibly Absent", a series of nine artists' projects. The final three, Doppelganger by Marlon Griffith, The Black Eye Project by Nikolai Noel, and Back in Times by Alex Smailes, opened on 12 October, 2006, and run until 26 October.

Marlon Griffith's Doppelganger is a multimedia installation tackling questions about law enforcement and public profiling, inspired by his own encounters with the police. The work is installed in the Art Room at CCA7 (open Tuesdays to Fridays from 12 to 5 pm, Thursdays from 12 to 8 pm, and Saturdays from 10 am to 5 pm).

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Nikolai Noel's Black Eye Project includes graffiti icons at outdoor locations around Port of Spain, and an installation in the Art Room at CCA7 (open Tuesdays to Fridays from 12 to 5 pm, Thursdays from 12 to 8 pm, and Saturdays from 10 am to 5 pm).

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Alex Smailes's Back in Times is a series of portrait photographs taken at the monthly "Back in Times" parties at the SWWTU Hall in Port of Spain. The photographs were installed at the SWWTU Hall for an actual "Back in Times" party on 7 October, and then reinstalled at CCA7 (open Tuesdays to Fridays from 12 to 5 pm, Thursdays from 12 to 8 pm, and Saturdays from 10 am to 5 pm).

"Too local for rock, too rock for local"

2006-10-15T13:36:00.000-04:00

Gary Hector and Damon Homer of jointpop performing for a small but enthusiastic audience at the Galvanize event "Make a Holy Noise", on Saturday 14 October, 2006, in the InterAmericas Space at CCA7. The performance was preceded by a public conversation between Hector and Homer and writer Jonathan Ali, ranging over issues of origins, influences, audiences, "songs you may never hear on the radio", and the challenges of writing and performing rock music firmly rooted in the Trinidadian consciousness and vernacular

The set list from "Make a Holy Noise"

See more photos from "Make a Holy Noise" in this Flickr set

Sound & Lyrics: "Make a Holy Noise": Gary Hector and jointpop

2006-10-13T15:30:00.000-04:00

jointpop, with Gary Hector at far right

On 14 October, Gary Hector and Damon Homer of jointpop, the groundbreaking Trinidadian rock band, will perform an acoustic set at CCA7, preceded by a public conversation between Hector and writer Jonathan Ali.

Gary Hector: "Most of [the band's] great performances were in underground situations, because that is what we were, that is what we were best suited to. We don't belong in the big venues, in the fetes ... we've never really been a band you can dance to, we're a band you listen to."

Read Tracy Assing's interview with Gary Hector in this feature on the Trinidadian rock music scene from Caribbean Beat magazine.

Make a Holy Noise: Gary Hector and jointpop will take place on Saturday 14 October, 2006, at 8 pm, in the InterAmericas Space at CCA7.

Visibly Absent: Doppelganger, by Marlon Griffith

2006-10-10T11:15:00.000-04:00

At the core of Galvanize is "Visibly Absent", a series of nine artists' projects. This is the eighth in a series of notes on each artist and his or her project.

Self-portrait of Marlon Griffith incorporating an actual police complaints form

Bio: Marlon Griffith attended the John S. Donaldson Technical Institute and has worked as a Carnival designer for several years; the traditions of mas inform most of his work. He has been an artist in residence at the Bag Factory and City + Suburban Studios in Johannesburg and the Mino Paper Art Village in Japan. He has participated in several groups shows in Trinidad and abroad.

Statement on Doppelganger: The title of this work is a term to describe an apparition or double. The project looks at the idea of profiling and public issues surrounding law enforcement; also at public perceptons of people we interact with every day--stereotypes, ethnicity, and cultural backgrounds.

Doppelganger was created out of a series of events in which I had uncomfortable encounters with the police and other law enforcement officials. Such encounters, vulgar displays of power, happen on a regular day-to-day basis to many citizens. The work seeks to address these issues and asks the question, who is going to protect us from the protectors?

Doppelganger will run from 16 to 26 October, 2006, in the Art Room at CCA7 (open Tuesdays to Fridays from 12 to 5 pm, Thursdays from 12 to 8 pm, and Saturdays from 10 am to 5 pm).

Open Screening: new video works by artists in and of the Caribbean

2006-10-09T19:03:00.000-04:00

From Omega (2004; single channel video projection), by Phil Coy

The Galvanize 2006 programme includes daily screenings of artists' video works in the Art Room at CCA7 (14 September to 26 October, 2006; Tuesdays to Fridays, 12 to 5 pm, Saturdays, 10 am to 5 pm).

Video works include:

Osaira Muyale: God Dog and Illusion
Elspeth Duncan: Light and Night and Angel
Jo Ferly: The Strange Fruit
Natalie Wei: And They Say "Don't Play With Poison"
Phil Coy: Omega
Tirzo Martha: The Suicide Note
Remy Jungerman: Flattened Toad Force/Office
Myrtha Richards: Parenthese
Marc Marie-Joseph: Parenthese

Buy the t-shirt

2006-10-09T19:02:00.000-04:00

Official limited edition Galvanize 2006 t-shirts are available for purchase. All profits go to support the Galvanize programme. The t-shirts, available in black or white, feature the Galvanize sign created by fete sign-painter Bruce Cayone. Available at CCA7 for TT$100, or by mail order for US$17 plus shipping and handling. For more information, contact CCA at mail@cca7.org or (868) 625 1889.

"You ready to dance?"

2006-10-08T13:53:00.000-04:00

Photographer Alex Smailes at the opening of Back in Times, SWWTU Hall, Wrightson Road, Saturday 7 October, 2006

See more photos from this event in these two Flickr sets: 1, 2

Visibly Absent: Back in Times opens at SWWTU

2006-10-07T12:42:00.000-04:00

Photographer Alex Smailes's Galvanize project is Back in Times, a series of portraits, taken over a period of two years, of patrons of the monthly "Back in Times" parties held at the SWWTU Hall on Wrightson Road in Port of Spain. The photographs will be shown in that very space, and the exhibition opens at SWWTU Hall on Saturday, 7 October, 2006, at an actual "Back in Times" party. All are invited.

From 7.30 to 9 pm, admission is free, with a door charge after 9. There will be music, a cash bar, and a chance to see Smailes's images in the location where they were made. The theme for the evening is "Victoria's Lady in Black"--dress up smart. Parking along Wrightson Road.

Back in Times runs until 26 October.

Performance: "Fresh Water": Makeda Thomas

2006-10-06T21:10:00.000-04:00

Makeda Thomas

"Why didn't you come earlier if you wanted to know about me?

"I'm in a watery state, caught in the midst.

"I don't know if I'm coming or going, let alone able to tell you about me.

"If you wanted to know about me, you should have come earlier."

Galvanize 2006 welcomes guest artist Makeda Thomas, dancer and choreographer, whose new work "Fresh Water" will be premiered on Saturday 7 October, 2006, at CCA7.

Bio: Makeda Thomas creates new dance works through cross-disciplinary collaboration with artists around the world. Her work is a fresh, rich use of contemporary modern and traditional dance with a platform that gives equal importance to the stage, workshop performances, and multimedia projects for dance-theatre experimentation. She is the artistic director of Makeda Thomas/Dance Projects (founded in 2003), which has presented work at Dance Theatre Workshop in New York, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Cine Teatro Africa in Maputo, and Links Hall in Chicago, among other places. In 2004, she was named resident choreographer of Companhia Nacional De Canto e Danca of Mozambique. For more information, visit her website Roots and Wings Movement.

"Fresh Water" (2006) will be danced by Makeda Thomas with video by Elspeth Duncan and music by Nantambu Drummers. Features the music of Ella Andall, Bob Marley, and Jimmy Cliff. The programme also includes a performance of "A Sense of Place" (2005), danced by Shani Collins, Khaleah London, and Sonja Dumas. With music by Zen One and video by Makeda Thomas. The event will be introduced by Hazel Franco, and there will be a post-performance discussion with the artists, moderated by Dionne Griffith.

"Fresh Water" takes its title from the Trinidadian term for someone who talks, dresses, or acts American without having gone overseas (crossing salt water). The term also describes someone who may have been overseas, but may be reminded they are still Caribbean. The work was created in the midst of the choreographer's return home after twenty years living abroad. "Fresh Water" is a deeply personal work, giving voice to a unique cultural experience, and demonstrating why "fresh water" is also the one resource humans depend on to survive.

Fresh Water will be held on Saturday 7 October, 2006, at 7.00 pm, in the InterAmericas Space at CCA7.

"This is a work in progress"

2006-10-06T10:24:00.000-04:00

Architect Asad Mohammed, artist Steve Ouditt, and architects Sean Leonard and Darren Brathwaite at the launch of "What Is Worth Talking About: Points for Reference in Our Changing Urban Landscape", at the Co-rd offices on Gray Street in St. Clair, Thursday 5 October, 2006

"What Is Worth Talking About: Points for Reference in Our Changing Urban Landscape" is a multi-media installation created by architect Sean Leonard, exploring questions about architecture and urban planning in Port of Spain. The installation includes video interviews with architects Colin Laird (pictured), Darren Brathwaite, and Asad Mohammed, and artist Steve Ouditt. The interviews are played on four screens scattered around the offices of Co-rd on Gray Street in St. Clair

(See more photos from the launch event in this Flickr set.)

Conversation: What Is Worth Talking About: Points for Reference in Our Changing Urban Landscape

2006-10-04T13:37:00.000-04:00

Port of Spain is changing rapidly before our eyes--what does it mean for the people who live, work, and play in the city? Who determines or influences the evolution of our shared urban space? What is the role of the architect, the urban planner, the government official, the property developer, the ordinary citizen?

Architect Sean Leonard has collaborated with fellow practitioners Asad Mohammed, Colin Laird, and Darren Brathwaite, as well as artist Steve Ouditt, to create a two-part multimedia installation addressing these and other questions about architecture and urbanism in Port of Spain. It includes "conversations presenting perspectives on the relevance, presence and/or absence of feasible design initiatives in the present rapid reconfiguration of our urban landscape", video footage of the changing city fabric, and audio recordings of sounds of the city in transformation.

What Is Worth Talking About: Points for Reference in Our Changing Urban Landscape will run from Thursday 5 October to Wednesday 18 October at two locations: Co-ord, 2B Alexandra Street, St. Clair, and Form & Function Design, 15B Gaston Johnston Street, Woodbrook. The project will be launched with an informal "conversation" at 7.30 pm on Thursday 5 October at Co-rd, 2B Alexandra Street, St. Clair. All are welcome

Visibly Absent 1.2: Akuzuru, Alexander, Nicholas

2006-10-02T14:46:00.000-04:00

At the core of Galvanize is "Visibly Absent", a series of nine artists' projects. The second three, Atonement for Our Transgressions by Akuzuru, Progressive Blindness by Tessa Alexander and Light, Lyric & Boxes by Parker Nicholas, opened on 29 September, 2006, and run until 11 October.

Akuzuru's Atonement for Our Transgressions is an outdoor installation using bamboo poles and discarded clothing, in the Queen's Park Savannah (northern side, opposite the Botanic Gardens). Open 24 hrs.

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Tessa Alexander's Progressive Blindness incorporates paintings and a video installation at Eddie Bowen's studio, 25 Sydenham Avenue, St. Ann's. Open Monday to Friday, 11 am to 8 pm, Saturday 11 am to 6 pm. For more information, contact the artist at (868) 745-6816.

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Parker Nicholas's Light, Lyrics & Boxes is a series of sculptures, some incorporating found objects, installed at Mode Alive, Frederick Street opposite Woodford Square, Downtown Port of Spain. Open Monday to Saturday, 9 am to 4 pm.

"All our music is calypso"

2006-10-01T15:02:00.000-04:00

Flugelhorn player Brendon Moore, guest bass guitarist Peter Noel, frontman Sheldon Holder, drummer Makesi Joseph, and lead guitarist John Hussain of 12 the band performing at the Galvanize event "Naked as You Born"; Saturday 30 September, 2006, Alice Yard, Roberts Street, Woodbrook

Flugelhorn player Brendon Moore, bass guitarist Nigel Irish, and frontman Sheldon Holder of 12 the band performing at the Galvanize event "Naked as You Born"; Saturday 30 September, 2006, Alice Yard, Roberts Street, Woodbrook

Artist Christopher Cozier and musician Sheldon Holder of 12 the band in conversation at the Galvanize event "Naked as You Born", Saturday 30 September, 2006, Alice Yard, Roberts Street, Woodbrook

"You could do that in the papers?"

2006-10-01T14:57:00.000-04:00

Editor Nicholas Laughlin and writers Attillah Springer, B.C. Pires, and Lisa Allen-Agostini lead the Galvanize conversation on "News That Stays News: Newsprint Literature", at CCA7, 28 September, 2006

Galvanize tonight: Sheldon Holder and 12

2006-09-30T16:34:00.000-04:00

Sheldon Holder of 12 the band

Saturday 30 September, 2006, 6 pm, at Alice Yard, 80 Roberts Street, Woodbrook: Sheldon Holder of 12 in conversation with Christopher Cozier, followed by a live performance by the band. Free of charge, all are welcome

Conversation: News That Stays News: Newsprint Literature

2006-09-26T18:59:00.000-04:00

B.C. Pires, Attillah Springer, and Lisa Allen-Agostini

Who are the writers grappling most immediately with the state of contemporary Trinidad and Tobago? What forms are they writing in, and for what audience? Are the fragmentary, discontinuous, first-person non-fiction narratives published in the periodical press--i.e., newspaper columns--"literature"? Can the newspaper column be a literary medium? And what are the boundaries between "literature", "journalism", and "activism"?

Columnists B.C. Pires (of the Trinidad Express), Attillah Springer, and Lisa Allen-Agostini (both of the Trinidad Guardian) join Caribbean Review of Books editor Nicholas Laughlin in a discussion of these and similar questions, in the second Galvanize "conversation".

Members of the public are invited to join the discussion.

A "conversation" on News That Stays News: Newsprint Literature will be held on Thursday 28 September, 2006, at 6.30 pm, in the InterAmericas Space at CCA7

Read B.C. Pires's latest column here, Attillah Springer's latest column here, and Lisa Allen-Agostini's latest column here

Talking about the Visual Arts Environment

2006-09-22T19:08:00.000-04:00

Curator and art historian Courtney Martin and artists Eddie Bowen, Mario Lewis, and Steve Ouditt lead the Galvanize "conversation" on "The Visual Arts Environment: 20 Years After", at CCA7, 21 September, 2006

Conversation: The Visual Arts Environment: 20 Years After

2006-09-18T15:24:00.000-04:00

In 1986, artists Edward Bowen and Steve Ouditt, both of whom had studied abroad and returned to Trinidad, founded an experimental independent study programme called the Visual Arts Environment. The main objective of the VAE was to facilitate a series of critical art workshops for young practising Trinidadian artists interested in developing their talents in the areas of contemporary art-making and thinking. It incorporated workshops in design, painting, drawing, and art theory, as well as talks and discussions by artists like Francisco Cabral, Anna Serrao, Christopher Cozier, Irenee Shaw, and Shastri Maharaj.

Based at Bowen's studio in St. Ann's, the VAE was eventually recognised by the University of the West Indies Extra Mural Department. VAE "graduates" included many of the younger generation of contemporary artists now working in Trinidad, such as Dean Arlen, Suzy Deyal, Che Lovelace, Mario Lewis, and the late Illya Furlonge-Walker.

Twenty years after the launch of this pioneering artist-led initiative, Galvanize will bring its founders, Edward Bowen and Steve Ouditt, together with art historian Courtey Martin and VAE "graduate" Mario Lewis to discuss the VAE's career, its impact on Trinidad's contemporary art scene, and its possible legacies and lessons for artists practising in this country today.

Eddie Bowen: "The collaboration sought to pitch the students squarely in a continuous dialogue and continuous meeting with art and design professionals, as well as a neverending pratical in studio...."

Artists and other members of the public are invited to join the discussion.

The "conversation" on The Visual Arts Environment: Twenty Years After will be held on Thursday 21 September, 2006, at 6.30 pm, in the InterAmericas Space at CCA7

Visibly Absent 1.1: Charran, Gaskin, Lee Loy

2006-09-16T12:32:00.000-04:00

At the core of Galvanize is "Visibly Absent", a series of nine artists' projects. The first three, The Banana Monologues by Sabrina Charran, A Walk in the Park by Gerard Gaskin and Unease: An 8-Step Programme by Jaime Lee Loy, opened on 15 September, 2006.

Sabrina Charran's Banana Monologues includes a series of graffiti posters installed around Port of Spain. Locations include: Keate Street south of Memorial Park; Roberto Street near the intersection with Warren Street; the Lady Young Road lookout. Open 24 hrs.

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Gerard Gaskin's A Walk in the Park is a series of photographs installed at the Tattoo Farm, Long Circular Road. Open Monday to Saturday, 11 am to 8 pm.

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Jaime Lee Loy's Unease: An 8-Step Programme is a video installation at Alice Yard, 80 Roberts Street, Woodbrook. Open Friday 15 September, 5 to 8 pm; Saturday 16 September, 11 am to 6 pm; Friday 22 September, 4 to 8 pm; Saturday 23 September, 11 am to 6 pm.

Read a full schedule of events here. See a map of Galvanize locations here.

Last night

2006-09-15T15:21:00.000-04:00

Mario Lewis and Charlotte Elias at the launch of Galvanize, 14 September, CCA7

Galvanize 2006 had an energetic start last night at CCA7. A crowd of several hundred turned up to meet the artists and see documentation of their work, to watch a series of artists' films, to hear Ataklan perform (joined for one song by surprise guest Sheldon Blackman), and to generally have a good time at the smashing launch party. Everyone took away a neat little leaflet with a schedule of events, map of locations, and bios of everyone involved, unfolding to reveal a Galvanize poster on the reverse.

Mario Lewis (foreground, at left) introduces seven of the nine artists who are producing work for the Galvanize 2006 "Visibly Absent" series: Jaime Lee Loy, Sabrina Charran, Gerard Gaskin, Nikolai Noel, Tessa Alexander, Parker Nicholas, and Marlon Griffith. Missing: Akuzuru, Alex Smailes

"Visibly Absent" projects by artists Sabrina Charran, Gerard Gaskin and Jaime Lee Loy open today--see the full schedule of events for more information on locations and times.

[See photos of the Galvanize 2006 launch event in the Galvanize 2006 Flickr set and at limingteam.com.]

Galvanize launch

2006-09-12T14:57:00.000-04:00

The six-week Galvanize 2006 programme launches with a party on Thursday 14 September at 7 pm, at CCA7. All are invited. Rapso artist Mark "Ataklan" Jiminez will perform; a series of short artists' films will be screened; the nine Galvanize artists will be present; and information about the entire Galvanize programme will be available.

Ataklan, photographed by Gerard Gaskin

Limited edition Galvanize t-shirts featuring a design by Bruce Cayone will be on sale. Several artists based at CCA7 will host open studios. DJs Ecstasy and Franco will supplement Ataklan's live performance.

For the duration of Galvanize, CCA7 will house a documentation centre, showing the evolution of all nine artists' projects and the response of their audiences.

For more information, contact CCA7 at 625-1889 or 625-6805

Where: a Galvanize map

2006-09-12T14:13:00.000-04:00

Locations for all main Galvanize events. See the schedule of events.

Visibly Absent: Back in Times, by Alex Smailes

2006-09-11T10:43:00.001-04:00

At the core of Galvanize is "Visibly Absent", a series of nine artists' projects. This is the seventh in a series of notes on each artist and his or her project.

From Alex Smailes's Back in Times series

Bio: Alex Smailes has worked as a photojournalist in Haiti, the Balkans, the Caucasus, the Middle East, Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands, among other places, and his images, the London Times, Le Figaro, Geographical, and Colors. Since 2001 he has been based in Port of Spain. His book Trinidad and Tobago: Carnival Land Water People was published in 2006.

Statement on Back in Times: You see them on the highway. You see them stuck to the lamp-posts as you wait in town traffic. They are bright hand-written signs with very kitsch colour combinations, illegally posted and advertising a "back in times" ball, or old-time dance. But how many of us actually read them, or go and see what they are all about? With dwindling patrons and few newcomers, this cultural project may very well be the last dance.

If you drive past the SWWTU Hall on Wrightson Road, the original dockworkers' social hall, on certain Saturday nights you may catch a glimpse of a lady and her friends easing out of a taxi. They may have tiaras, veils, or just simple red ribbons adorning their immaculate hair. The gentlemen waiting for their dates might be donning three-piece suits, purple velvet two-pieces, or at least silk shirts. Their shoes will be gleaming, along with their gold or silver chains. Balloons decorate the entrance, usually in the colour theme of the evening, giving a hint of what is the expected attire for entrance. These are "colour" balls, and to dress to impress is the idea. Lady in red, purple passion, evergreen, snow white, pretty in pink--to name a few. They have been going on for decades.

I spent about two years documenting and taking portraits of the patrons. Those first few contact sheets, something magic struck me about these people: unabashed, posing, and staring back. I continued to visit as often as possible. I soon started charging small change for the Polaroid to weed out the masses--but if I saw a choice person I would offer to shoot them for free. I soon had regular clients and made good friends. They remind me of family snaps taken at Christmas, a wedding, or a graduation.

I used an old fashioned 6x7 Bronica camera on a tripod and two studio flashes. I made a big deal of setting up, very slowly, setting off lots of flashes to attracted people over. It had the desired effect. Almost too good. I soon had a queue, and after the word got around that someone was giving away free pictures it turned into a bustling crowd. A light was nearly kicked over by a large woman. Others would pretend I didn't exist, and just walk straight past even when I was shooting.

My early influences were the likes of Julia Margaret Cameron, from the early 19th century, who was better known for creating dramatic scenes from literature or religion, but would also often place her subjects in front of a plain dark cloth and let the subjects speak for themselves. Or the early photographers of the midwestern US, photographing regal Indian chefs. Another great inspiration was Seydou Keita, the studio photographer from Mali, whose work between the 1940s and 60s, only recently come to light, is an amazing documentation of society.

In my own sphere of work, being commissioned by Colors magazine to cover stories in the Caribbean, I had to follow their guidelines and style of shooting ordinary people in ordinary places doing ordinary things. And also shoot them in a front-on, plain style. All of this led me to use the plain white walls of SWWTU as my backdrop. The subjects' clothes and own individualistic style would speak for themselves. The poses are their own--I didn't direct them in any manner. Often a single prop would appear in the background, like a empty Carib bottle or even a light cable. I didn't really move anything.

Back in Times will run from 13 to 26 October, 2006, at the SWWTU Hall, Wrightson Road.

Working on documentation

2006-09-09T13:13:00.000-04:00

Working on the Galvanize information leaflet. From left: Nicholas Laughlin, designer Jerome Harrylal, Christopher Cozier. Photo by Mario Lewis

Visibly Absent: Banana Monologues, by Sabrina Charran

2006-09-04T20:02:00.000-04:00

At the core of Galvanize is "Visibly Absent", a series of nine artists' projects. This is the sixth in a series of notes on each artist and his or her project.

From Sabrina Charran's Banana Monologues--work in progress

Bio: Sabrina Charran recently graduated from the University of the West Indies, St Augustine. She has a keen interest in drawing, in graphic design, and in architecture, as well as psychoanalysis, human geography, and urbanism. Charran placed first and was awarded the prize for most outstanding art student in the Women in Art Biennial Art Competition. She was awarded UWI's Leroy Clarke Trophy for Excellence in Art in 2002 and the Eastman-Christensen Visual Arts Award for Excellence in 2005.

Banana Monologues: This project is a body of work comprising installation, posters, and photography. Through a combination of graphic illustrations, found objects, and Polaroid pictures, it develops a narrative based on neurotic bananas speaking up from a capitalist "bananaist" standpoint against their oppressor -- the artist. The subjects, the bananas, voice their opinions about their subjection to the artist's still-life paintings and their exploitation in the local art market. In their protests, some bananas are depicted with expiry dates; others claim that "the artist is the enemy". It is a satirical work which aims to appeal to a general audience.

Banana Monologues will run from 15 to 27 September, 2006, at various locations in and around Port of Spain.

Sound & Lyrics: "Naked As You Born": Sheldon Holder and 12

2006-09-02T13:54:00.000-04:00

The core of Galvanize 2006 is "Visibly Absent", a series of nine visual artists' projects, but the programme also includes performances by and conversations with musicians, writers, and architects.

Sheldon Holder of 12 the band. Photo by Alex Smailes

On 30 September, Sheldon Holder, musician, songwriter, and frontman of 12 the band, will have a public conversation with artist Christopher Cozier. Their informal, freeform dialogue may cover, among other things, the current local music scene, the evolution of 12's "eclectic soul" sound, Holder's musical influences, and Holder and Cozier's past collaborations, followed by a free performance by the full band.

Read Georgia Popplewell's short profile of 12 in the March/April 2006 issue of Caribbean Beat. Listen to Popplewell's interview with Holder at Caribbean Free Radio (posted 27 May, 2005).

Naked As You Born: Sheldon Holder and 12 will take place at 6 pm on Saturday 30 September, 2006, at Alice Yard, 80 Roberts Street, Woodbrook.

Visibly Absent: Atonement for Our Transgressions, by Akuzuru

2006-09-02T13:20:00.000-04:00

At the core of Galvanize is "Visibly Absent", a series of nine artists' projects. This is the fifth in a series of notes on each artist and his or her project.

Part of artist Akuzuru's sculptural installation Tapia/Flood II at CCA7 in 2005. Photo by Aldwin Sin Pang

Bio: Akuzuru was born in Trinidad and studied fashion and textile design in London and Zaria, Nigeria. She has had nine solo exhibitions in Trinidad and Tobago, the UK, Nigeria, and South Africa; most recently, Tapia/Flood II, a large sculptural installation work at two sites, one indoors and one outdoors, in Port of Spain. She has also participated in many group shows. She was an artist-in-residence at the Bag Factory in Johannesburg in 2002 and at the Braziers International Artists' Workshop in Oxfordshire in 2004. She currently lives and works in Trinidad.

Statement: My practice as an inter-disciplinary artist is a multi-dimensional venture. The surrounding natural environment forms part of my concerns with space and its multi-sociological effects on the human-phenomena, thereby transcending this concept onto the universal platform. This deals with human encroachment on a natural bio-topography and how this has affected and effected the evolvement of the environment in which we live.

Over a twenty-year period, my explorations have tethered on the brink and beyond the stringent confines of the regimentation of conventional "fine art". The work itself is non-compartmentalised. It is neither conceptual nor representational, sculptural nor painting, drawing nor dance nor sound. It is a convergence of all of these and none.

For the past few years, I have been building a series of architectural structures which have their foundations in "primordial" village dwellings of ancient nations and cultures. By situating these structures and other organic forms in the contemporary urban setting, I seek to reconnect and reintroduce the natural environment to humanity's consciousness.

Atonement for Our Transgressions: I seek to bring the inside out. That is to say, for a de-spirited people this work will serve as a third eye to aid in that reconnecting to self. Nature informs this premise, as it has always informed my practice.

I would like to continue the venture of connecting the interior space of a building to the natural environment. This is about space reclaiming its space, turning a building inside out. It is literally a changing of one's skin, one's house. An architectonic element persists here, as I want to engage an interiority which is seldom exposed. This elusive interiority will be exposed through my continual investigations into the "clothesline" aesthetic. The installation will be a large intimidating form or a series of forms to be hung on a "clothesline" in the natural environment.

Atonement for Our Trangressions will run from 29 September to 11 October, 2006, at a location in Port of Spain which will be announced shortly.

Visibly Absent: Progressive Blindness, by Tessa Alexander

2006-09-01T13:30:00.000-04:00

At the core of Galvanize is "Visibly Absent", a series of nine artists' projects. This is the fourth in a series of notes on each artist and his or her project.

From Tessa Alexander's Progressive Blindness--work in progress

Bio: Tessa Alexander is an artist and teacher who currently works as the children's art programme coordinator at Caribbean Contemporary Arts (CCA). She has been an artist in residence at the Sanskriti Kendra in New Delhi. She has shown her work in several solo exhibitions in Trinidad.

Statement: My goal is to create work that appeals to the viewer in an emotional, almost spiritual way, by reconnecting them with elements of humanity that are taken for granted. I have a great interest in cultural anthropology, and my work reflects this. I aim to show our interconnection with each other and with our various environments.

With my background in fabric design, my "paintings", although watercolours, utilise many ways of producing texture by layering various types of paper, decorative elements, and using many gel mediums on my work surface before applying colour, resulting in work with an almost three-dimensional feel and very rich tones not usually associated with my chosen medium; but at the same time not loosing the spontaneity and watery dreamlike feeling.

Progressive Blindness: My installation is based on the recent saturation of visual imagery and marketing extravagance by the mobile phone companies bMobile and Digicel in the Trinidad and Tobago market. Although this type of marketing is global and "progressive", it is the first time that such aggressive marketing and branding have been used in this country.

This installation will feature:
- a video of sites around Trinidad with billboards and cell towers painted on the wall and obstructing the view, signifying the progressive landscape, as well as interviews with people on the street being asked set questions. This video will be played repeatedly as viewers walk into a room that has shredded green and red fabric piled in a heap, with merchandise give-aways signifying a materialistic, wasteful modern-day altar.
- collages made using the imagery in the ads and lettering, adding my own imagery to give the ads new meanings.
- large-scale mixed-media paintings on ply board using the mobile companies' billboard imagery and signage as a starting point to create my own advertising billboards.

The installation is not against technology, but rather aims to open up discussion about superficial marketing and the money used to create illusions of progress amid disempowerment, versus socially responsible marketing (which I feel is "visibly absent") that could actually bring about positive change and therefore real progress.

Progressive Blindness will run from 29 September to 11 October, 2006, at Eddie Bowen's studio, 25 Sydenham Avenue, St Ann's.

Visibly Absent: Unease: An 8-Step Programme, by Jaime Lee Loy

2006-08-29T13:56:00.000-04:00

At the core of Galvanize is "Visibly Absent", a series of nine artists' projects. This is the third in a series of notes on each artist and his or her project.

"The Bath", a video still from Jaime Lee Loy's Unease: An 8-Step Programme--work in progress

Bio: Jaime Lee Loy was born in Trinidad in 1980. She obtained an honours BA degree at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine, with a major in literature and a special in visual arts. She also won a scholarship to pursue her MPhil in literature at UWI, of which she has completed two years of study. She currently works as the exchange programme coordinator at Caribbean Contemporary Arts (CCA), and has been experimenting with video for five years, after exhibiting her paintings in over a dozen exhibitions. Her blog is at jaimeleeloy.blogspot.com.

Statement: Since 2003, my process has moved from producing semi-abstract and surreal paintings to video and mixed-media work that explores social commentary, mainly dealing with issues facing women. Continuously experimenting with media, I am focused on investigating the complex undertones of the female psyche and its relationship to its subjective environment of gender censorship. I am exposing thoughts and attitudes that women are encouraged or forced to hide.

The poetry and screenplays that I write and the subjects that I film are inspired by a innate need to be brutally honest about such exposure. Whatever the medium--charcoal, acrylic, video, or collage--my work is always questioning. Issues of gender are part of a wider construct that subordinates or stigmatises various "positionings" in society, and I hope to spark a discourse that interrogates the foundations of these biases.

Unease: An 8-Step Programme: This project examines the idea of the uncomfortable. It defines states of uneasiness and uncertainty as integral to creativity, self-awareness, and critical thinking, and interrogates societal and individual dependency on fixed answers, ideas of enlightenment, fixed truths, and the need for security. I believe that most acts of violence and confident shows of prejudice and hate are born out of a political or social position that is stagnant, too fixed, and deceptively comfortable.

This video will investigate a "Grey Area" through a satirical eight-step programme. The eight steps to normalcy--or eight steps to being a natural or ideal woman--will reveal and question the psychological after-effects women face when trying to fit themselves into a life or a role they do not desire. The motif of a measuring tape recurs throughout the video, deconstructing the act of measuring, defining, and labelling women and their roles in society. The eight steps will be ironic, with an underlying tone that presents an in-your-face, uncomfortable platform from which to discuss these ideas, instigating a re-thinking of former myths and accepted "truths" about what being a woman represents.

Although women's rights, gender studies, and feminist activism suggest that these issues are quite visible, female angst is still stigmatised as "bitterness", rather than seen as an expression of circumstance, and a call to alleviate inequity. Unease gives glimpses into the problematic side of the female gender structure, such as eating disorders, notions of chastity, the demonisation of women's sexuality as a system of control, and some women's humble acceptance of these unjust boundaries.

Unease: An 8-Step Programme will be screened at Alice Yard, 80 Roberts Street, Woodbrook, on Friday 15 September, 2006, from 5 to 8 pm; Saturday 16 September, from 11 am to 6 pm; Friday 22 September, from 4 to 8 pm; and Saturday 23 September, from 11 am to 6 pm.

Jaime Lee Loy photographing Sabrina Charran for the multimedia installation Unease: An 8-Step Programme

Visibly Absent: A Walk in the Park, by Gerard Gaskin

2006-08-28T20:23:00.000-04:00

At the core of Galvanize is "Visibly Absent", a series of nine artists' projects. This is the second in a series of notes on each artist and his or her project.

Untitled (2001), from the portrait series A Walk in the Park, by Gerard Gaskin

Bio: Gerard H. Gaskin was born in Trinidad and Tobago and currently lives in New York, where he works as a freelance photographer. His work has appeared in newspapers and magazines such as the New York Times, Newsday, Black Enterprise, King, Teen People, Caribbean Beat, and DownBeat Magazine. His clients also include record companies like Island, Sony, Def Jam, and Mercury Records. Gaskin's photographs have been shown in solo and group exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum, the Queens Museum of Arts, the Black Magic Woman Festival in Amsterdam, and Imagenes Havana in Cuba. His work is represented in the permanent collections of the Museum of the City of New York, the Queensborough Community College Art Gallery, and the Schomburg Centre for Research in Black Culture. For more information, see www.gerardhgaskin.com.

Statement: The main objective of Galvanize is to have a full conversation about art with the people of the Caribbean. My conversation is about sexuality: what do we do with it, and are we going to have a real, true dialogue with it? My hope is that the people who look at my photos will have that conversation with my work. I would also like for the gay population of Trinidad to see gay men and women somewhere else in the world looking back at them with pride and dignity.

A Walk in the Park: These photographs are portraits from my ongoing project about the Balls in New York City. The Balls are a celebration of black and Latino urban gay life. They were born in Harlem in the 1950s out of a need for black and Latino gays to have a safe space to express themselves. Balls are constructed like beauty and talent pageants. The participants work to redefine and critique gender and sexual identity through an extravagant fashion masquerade. Women and men become fluid, interchangeable points of departure and reference, disrupting the notion of a fixed and rigid gender and sexual make-up. My images try to show a more personal and intimate beauty, pride, dignity, courage and grace that has been painfully challenged by mainstream society. All of this happens at night in small halls around New York City.

A Walk in the Park will run from 15 to 27 September, 2006, at the Tattoo Farm, Long Circular Road, Maraval.

Visibly Absent: The Black Eye Project, by Nikolai Noel

2006-08-28T17:22:00.000-04:00

At the core of Galvanize is "Visibly Absent", a series of nine artists' projects. This is the first in a series of notes on each artist and his or her project.

From Nikolai Noel's Black Eye Project--work in progress

Bio: Nikolai Noel was born in 1976 in Trinidad, and grew up in the east Port of Spain district of Belmont. He attended the John Donaldson Technical Institute then entered the world of commercial video production as an animator. He began to exhibit in 2000, and has shown work every year since, participating in a number of group shows and one solo show in 2002.

Statement: The purpose of my work is to question the way we structure our civilisation. Why are the institutions that govern the world we know, the institutions that govern the world we know? Could we have evolved an alternative, more equitable form of organising ourselves? Is it too late to do it? Do we have the will or desire for that kind of thing? I am interested in the millions of years of occurrences that brought us to this point.

My work owes a lot to my Christian upbringing, forming in me the desire to tell stories and make my point in parable form, as Christ did. I may at times invent entire mythologies as analogies for social situations, or manipulate existing symbols and narratives to suggest new meanings in an attempt to expose or subvert accepted, established social institutions.

The Black Eye Project: This project attempts to draw attention to issues of security and liberty. It also addresses economic and political issues. Large stenciled images of "The Blimp" will be spray-painted onto sheets of industrial clear plastic and layered so as to tell a moving story of concerns and implications. Each image will be different, and mounted so that the viewer can either view the layered image as a whole or move between the images to see them as individuals. The images themselves will be black and graphic.

There is also a public element. A small stencil will be used to "tag" areas where one may be surveilled in public. Though "The Blimp" has not been in operation for a while, the image and implications of it are still present in the public consciousness. The project seeks to engage the public in an as-of-now understated debate on issues of crime and privacy and trust, as we await the inevitable return of "The Blimp" to our night skies.

The Black Eye Project will run from 13 to 26 October, 2006, at various outdoor locations in and around Port of Spain, and in the Back Studio at CCA7.

Galvanize 2006: updated schedule of events

2006-08-22T15:45:00.000-04:00

Galvanize is a six-week contemporary arts programme running from 14 September to 26 October, 2006. It is divided into three phases of one fortnight each.

1.1

Launch Party
14 September, 2006, 7.00 pm
Venue: CCA7

Visibly Absent: Artists' Interventions
15 to 27 September, 2006

= Gerard Gaskin: A Walk in the Park
photography installation
Venue: Tattoo Farm, Long Circular Road, Maraval
Times: The Tattoo Farm is open Monday to Friday, 11 am to 8 pm

= Jaime LeeLoy: Unease: An 8-Step Programme
multi-media installation
Venue: Alice Yard, 80 Roberts Street, Woodbrook
Times: Friday 15 September, 5 to 8 pm
Saturday 16 September, 11 am to 6 pm
Friday 22 September, 4 to 8 pm
Saturday 23 September, 11 am to 6 pm

= Sabrina Charran: Banana Monologues
intervention in public spaces--posters, cards, etc.
Venues: outdoor public locations around Port of Spain

Open Screenings: New video work by artists in and of the Caribbean
15 September to 26 October, 2006
Venue: The Art Room, CCA7

Conversation: The Visual Arts Environment, 20 Years After
discussion of the pioneering 1980s artists-led initiative
21 September, 2006, 6.30 pm
Venue: InterAmericas Space, CCA7
Participants: Courtney Martin, Steve Ouditt, Edward Bowen, Mario Lewis

1.2

Visibly Absent: Artists' Interventions
29 September to 11 October, 2006
Launch event: 28 September, 2006, 8.00 pm, CCA7

= Akuzuru: Atonement for Our Transgressions
site-specific installation
Venue: Queen's Park Savannah, opposite the Botanic Gardens

= Parker Nicholas: Light, Lyrics & Boxes
sculpture
Venue: Mode Alive, Frederick Street, downtown

= Tessa Alexander: Progressive Blindness
video installation
Venue: Eddie Bowen's Studio, 25 Sydenham Avenue, St Ann’s

Conversation: News That Stays News: Newsprint Literature
readings and discussion of the newspaper column as a literary medium
Thursday 28 September, 2006, 6.30 pm
Venue: InterAmericas Space, CCA7
Participants: B.C. Pires, Attillah Springer, Lisa Allen-Agostini, Nicholas Laughlin

Sound and Lyrics: Sheldon Holder and 12
performance and conversation with Christopher Cozier
Saturday 30 September, 2006, 6.00 pm
Venue: Alice Yard, 80 Roberts Street, Woodbrook

Conversation: What Is Worth Talking About: Points for Reference in our Changing Urban Landscape
multimedia installation addressing architecture, design, and urbanism
Thursday 5 October to Wednesday 18 October, 2006
Venues: 3 Gray Street, St Clair; and Form & Function, 5B Gaston Johnston Street, Woodbrook
Launch event: Thursday 5 October, 2006, 7.30 pm
3 Gray Street, St Clair
Participants: Sean Leonard, Steve Ouditt, Asad Mohammed, Colin Laird, Darren Brathwaite

Performance: Fresh Water, by Makeda Thomas
dance project, with light installation by Elspeth Duncan
Saturday 7 October, 2006, 7 pm
Venue: InterAmericas Space, CCA7
Dancers: Makeda Thomas, Shani Collins, Khaleah London, Sonja Dumas

1.3

Visibly Absent: Artists' Interventions
13 to 26 October, 2006
Launch event: 12 October, 2006, 8.00 pm, CCA7

= Marlon Griffith: Doppelganger
video installation
Venue: Mangoes Restaurant, Independence Square

= Alex Smailes: Back in Times
photo installation
Venue: SWWTU Hall, Wrightson Road; back corridor, CCA7
Opens on Saturday 7 October at SWWTU at an actual "Back in Times" party; free admission between 7.30 and 9 pm
From Friday 13 October, installed in the back corridor at CCA7

= Nikolai Noel: The Black Eye Project
wall drawings in public spaces and drawing installation
Venues: outdoor locations around Port of Spain; the Art Room, CCA7

Sound and Lyrics: Gary Hector and jointpop
performance and conversation with Jonathan Ali
Saturday 14 October, 2006, 8.00 pm
Venue: InterAmericas Space, CCA7

Performance: Meta-Osmotica, by Akuzuru
performance work
Tuesday 17 October, 2006, 6:30pm
Venue: Form & Function, 5B Gaston Johnston Street, Woodbrook

Retrospective: Design works by Illya Furlonge-Walker
Tuesday 17 October, 2006, 7:00pm
Venue: Form & Function, 5B Gaston Johnston Street, Woodbrook

Conversation: Monsters and Other Animals: Poems and Fictions
readings and discussion
Thursday 19 October, 2006, 6.30 pm
Venue: InterAmericas Space, CCA7
Participants: James Christopher Aboud, Anu Lakhan, Nicholas Laughlin

Conversation: What Next?: Galvanize Post-Mortem
Thursday 2 November, 2006, 6.30 pm
Venue: InterAmericas Space, CCA7
Participants: Mario Lewis, Christopher Cozier, Steve Ouditt, Peter Doig, Nicholas Laughlin, Charlotte Elias

Ongoing: each Galvanize event or project will be documented online at projectgalvanize.blogspot.com.

Galvanize 2006: "Visibly Absent" artists & draft schedule of events

2006-07-29T16:46:00.000-04:00

The core of Galvanize 2006 is the "Visibly Absent" exhibition programme: nine projects by emerging artists shown at non-traditional sites in and around Port of Spain. The nine participating artists are Akuzuru, Tessa Alexander, Sabrina Charran, Gerard Gaskin, Marlon Griffith, Jaime Lee Loy, Parker Nicholas, Nikolai Noel, and Alex Smailes.

CCA will provide logistical support for the nine projects, and the Galvanize advisory board will work with the artists to develop their ideas in the specific contexts of the physical sites where they will be created and shown.

In the coming weeks, more information about the nine artists and their projects will be posted on this weblog.

Key dates (still subject to change):

14 September 2006: Galvanize launch. Venue: CCA7.

15 September 2006: Openings of first three "Visibly Absent" artists' projects. Venues to be announced.

20 September 2006: Symposium 1: The Visual Arts Environment programme, twenty years later. Venue to be announced.

28 September 2006: Openings of next three "Visibly Absent" artists' projects. Venues to be announced.

4 October 2006: Symposium 2: "What is worth talking about?": architecture, design, and urbanism. Venue to be announced.

12 October 2006: Openings of final three "Visibly Absent" artists' projects. Venues to be announced.

25 October 2006: Symposium 3: Galvanize post-mortem. Venue to be announced.

26 October 2006: Formal close of Galvanize 2006. Venue to be announced.

Dates for literary and performance events and video screenings will be announced shortly.

Call for artists' videos

2006-07-29T16:08:00.000-04:00

Galvanize wishes to invite artists based in the Caribbean as well as Caribbean artists based internationally to submit video works for the 2006 programme, which will take place in Port of Spain, Trinidad, from 14 September to 26 October, with the theme "Visibly Absent".

GUIDELINES FOR APPLICATIONS

Please provide:

1. A brief artist's statement and a synopsis of the video work(s) (100 words maximum).
2. Your full name and contact information: mailing address, phone numbers, and email address.
3. A CV as well as photocopies of relevant articles on or reviews of your work, samples of your own writing, or exhibition catalogues.

Visual material:

Please submit a maximum of two DVDs, single channel, suitable for either projection or viewing on a monitor. Provide instructions for navigating DVD menus. Also provide the title and total running time, and information on the original format/medium (eg film or video, as well as projection specifications), with with a one- or two-sentence description.

If you would like your visual materials returned, you must provide a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE).

While all applications will be handled with care, Galvanize cannot be responsible for damage or loss of submitted materials. If you do not enclose a self-addressed stamped envelope with your application, we will assume you do not want your materials returned. Please do not send original or irreplaceable material.

Galvanize retains the right to publish photographs and text(s) from work(s) selected for exhibit in promotional material relating to the event. Such content will not be used in any other form, unless specifically authorised by the artist, as in the case of a publication.

All documents must be on 8.5" x 11" paper.

IMPORTANT: All documents should be labelled with your name and contact information. Applications must reach the CCA office by Thursday, 7 September, 2006.

For further information, contact crf.ideas@gmail.com

Mail applications to:
Caribbean Contemporary Arts
CCA 7, Building Number 7,
Fernandes Industrial Centre
Eastern Main Road, Laventille, Port of Spain,
Trinidad, West Indies.
Voice: 625 1889 or 625 6805
Fax: (624 0695)

2006-07-28T11:52:00.000-04:00

Meeting of the selection committee of the Galvanize contemporary arts programme at CCA7, 17 July 2006. From left: Christopher Cozier, Nicholas Laughlin, Steve Ouditt, and Peter Doig. Photo taken by the committee's fifth member, Mario Lewis

(Towards a statement of purpose)

2006-07-26T18:16:00.000-04:00

What is "Caribbean" art? ("Art" in the widest sense, encompassing the visual, the musical, the literary, the performative etc.) Who decides? What should it look like, sound like, feel like? What should it be trying to do? Forty years after the "Independence moment" of the 1950s and 1960s, these are increasingly crucial, troubling, and stimulating questions for artists in the Caribbean, as well as their audiences.

There is a sense in which those artists who were in their prime during this "Independence moment" scripted--and continue to script--the narrative of Caribbean art. They devised the models, they created the mythologies, they cleared spaces, their works and their personas came to define what art in the Caribbean can and ought to be and do. But the Caribbean has changed radically in the last forty years. Are the celebrated models and definitions still relevant? Can they be adapted? Must they be replaced? By whom? For whom?

These are questions no single person can answer, and the familiar method of making soapbox declarations and issuing manifestos seems to lead to antagonisms and misunderstandings. What we need, perhaps, is to engage more consciously in a process of conversation, where everyone is both a speaker and a listener, where problems and questions are tackled from many directions at once, where above all we pay real attention to each other, make a real attempt to engage in understanding.

The ultimate aim of Galvanize is the establishment of a regular (annual or biennial?) series of arts programmes based in Port of Spain and tackling the above questions and many others by bringing artists, critics, and audiences into fruitful conversations. The presence of several hundred artists and arts administrators in Trinidad in September 2006 for Carifesta IX is the stimulus for starting this project--you could say we've been galvanised into action by the resurrection of Carifesta--but this project is best thought of as an independent effort aimed at addressing precisely those questions that Carifesta, with its "Independence moment" origins, seems blind to.

Galvanise 2006 is a modest effort to get the conversation started--call it a prototype.

Focusing on art in Trinidad and Tobago, to start with, the Galvanise team/collective will coordinate a series of exhibition, performance, and discussion events in which a selected group of artists, writers, musicians, performers, and critics will get the conversation going, with the hope of staging a larger, more ambitious event along similar lines in 2007.