Alice Yard

A Dialogue on Rapso - Past and Present

2012-01-19T22:50:00.006-04:00

Friday 20/01/2012 / 3- 5pm /Alice Yard
Moderated by Patricia van Leeuwaarde Moonsammy

This event is "a coming together of rapso artists (past and present) to have a dynamic conversation about significant moments and movements in the history of this genre. ."
- Patricia van Leeuwaarde Moonsammy

Patricia van Leeuwaarde Moonsammy is an Assistant Professor of Africana Studies at Dickinson College, where she teaches courses on the African Diaspora and the Caribbean. Trained as an anthropologist, her scholarly work focuses on the intersections of performance, activism and identity politics in the Caribbean. Adding to material from interviews she has conducted with artists over the past 8 years, she hopes the event would offer a more dynamic conversation between artists and highlight significant moments and movements in the history of this genre. Those expected in attendance are Brother Resistance, 3Canal, Ataklan, Ozy Merrique, Gillian Moor, Sista Ava, Brother Book, and other members of the Rapso community.

Photo -Network Rapso Riddum Band Truck Banner, Emancipation Parade.

A conversation with Sasha Dees

2011-11-29T01:04:00.001-04:00

Friday 2 December, 2011, at 7 pm

Sasha Dees is an independent curator and producer who lives and works between Amsterdam and New York. She has been a producer for numerous projects in all art disciplines and she was one of the pioneers in rebuilding the cultural exchange between the Netherlands and Suriname.

In addition to her own projects, in 2003 she and Philip Powel founded the not-for-profit organisation for the arts John106. Dees is also the co-developer and curator for the Open Ateliers Artist in Residence (OAZO-AIR) programme in Amsterdam.

In early December 2011, Dees will be based at Alice Yard on a short investigative residency, exploring the contemporary art scene in Port of Spain.On Friday 2 December, at 7 pm, she will give an informal talk at Alice Yard about her current projects and the OAZO-AIR programme.

All are invited.

“I dream to change the world”: celebrating the legacy of Martin Carter

2011-10-13T23:01:00.003-04:00

Friday 14 October, 2011, from 7.00 to 9.00 pm

... if you see me
looking at your hands
listening when you speak
marching in your ranks
you must know
I do not sleep to dream, but dream to change the world.

The 30th West Indian Literature Conference, hosted by the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, from 13 to 15 October, 2011, borrows its theme from a poem by the late Guyanese writer Martin Carter: “I Dream to Change the World: Literature and Social Transformation”.

As part of the conference programme, on Friday 14 October, from 7.00 to 9.00 pm, the Bocas Lit Fest and Alice Yard will host an informal evening of readings and performances celebrating Carter’s intellectual and creative legacy. Scholar Gemma Robinson, Carter’s editor and biographer, will speak about his relevance for today’s Caribbean writers and artists, followed by readings by Nalo Hopkinson, Vahni Capildeo, and Barbara Jenkins. A performance by 3Canal will close the programme. Visual works by artists Marlon Griffth, James Cooper, and Rodell Warner will also be on view.

All are invited.

Charles Campbell- Actor/Transporter

2011-09-16T09:21:00.009-04:00

ACT 5 - final action, reception & discussion
Sunday September 18th at 6pm - Alice Yard
( 4 - 5.30 pm - actual performance investigation - Wild Flower Park, P.O.S.)

Charles Campbell is among a new generation of contemporary Caribbean artists working to explore and disrupt the region’s dominant social narratives. He has exhibited widely in North America, the Caribbean, and Europe, representing Jamaica in events such as the Havana
Biennial and the Brooklyn Museum’s Infinite Islands exhibition. His work uses images culled from the Caribbean's history of slavery and emancipation to investigate the intersection between meaning and image and open up the possibility of personal and social transformation. He holds an MA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths College and currently lives and works in Canada.
His recent work has investigated and re-imagined the traditional Actor Boy character from the Jamaican Jonkonnu festival, a trickster figure and “agent of chaos and change.” Campbell writes: “Rather than remaining the character from Belisario’s print, a character from the past, I envision him as a character from one of the possible futures that was alive at the time of emancipation and a sort of embodiment of the coexistence of multiple futures.”

Looking at the Rational Utopianism of Buckminster Fuller as one of these multiple futures, Campbell has begun to create a series of three-dimensional spheres, drawing on Fuller’s geodesic domes: vehicles for the transport and circulation of people, ideas, and images, which “simultaneously excite different ways to understand something we see.” Campbell’s participation in ACT 5 is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.
Act 5 project statement here
See previous event pictures here & video
All are invited.

ACT 5: The Performative Moment

2011-09-07T12:03:00.010-04:00

Opens Sunday 11 September, 2011, 5.30 to 8.00 pm

From the Helmet Series, by James Cooper

In September 2011, Alice Yard marks its fifth anniversary as an independent space for creative investigation, with a programme of events called ACT 5: The Performative Moment.

On Sunday 11 September, from 5.30 to 8 pm, Alice Yard hosts the opening of a show of live and documented actions by six artists: Ebony G. Patterson, Dhiradj Ramsamoedj, Charles Campbell, Hew Locke, James Cooper, and Marlon Griffith.

Actions in space and time operate at the juncture between remembered or conjured pasts and futures. Within this perpetual moment — remembered or recorded, privately or publicly enacted, never dependent on a fixed location or context — the contemporary, as an investigative visual enterprise, can be understood as more than just an inventory of cultural commodities or itinerant objects aspiring for visibility or institutional embraces. To many, this shifty and shifting lack of materiality is still seen as weakness when it comes to comparative or competitive questions of visibility and the historical record.

ACT 5 is simply a sequence in this ongoing process of transforming the value of our actions and the varied spaces in which we live and imagine. It is an alternative only to the way we may have forgotten aspects of our living past.

— Christopher Cozier

All are invited to attend the opening event and participate in this continuing dialogue. The ACT 5 installation can also be viewed on Monday 12 and Tuesday 13 September, from 5 to 7 pm, and by special arrangement. Contact helloaliceyard@gmail.com for more information.

Serpent of the Nile (2007), by Hew Locke, from the How Do You Want Me? series

Find out how you can support Alice Yard and ACT 5 here.

ACT 5: Dhiradj Ramsamoedj: Flexible Man

2011-08-30T16:26:00.006-04:00

Saturday 3 September, 2011, at 9.30 am

Photographs by Christopher Cozier

In September 2011, Alice Yard will celebrate its fifth anniversary as an independent space for creative experiment. We mark the occasion with a programme of events that consider contemporary visual art’s engagement with performance: ACT 5.

As part of our anniversary programme, and continuing our ongoing participation in regional art dialogues, Alice Yard has invited a series of artists from the wider Caribbean to create site-specific actions.

The second of our anniversary artists-in-residence is Surinamese Dhiradj Ramsamoedj. During his time in Trinidad, he has continued his ongoing Flexible Man project by performing a series of public actions recorded with the help of artists Rodell Warner and Brianna McCarthy.

On Saturday 3 September, at 9.30 am, Ramsamoedj will present and discuss this work during an informal gathering at Alice Yard. All are invited to join in over a cup of coffee. This will also be an opportunity to meet our third anniversary artist-in-residence, Jamaican Charles Campbell.

About the artist:

Dhiradj Ramsamoedj is based in Paramaribo, where he graduated from the Nola Hatterman Art Academy in 2004. His work has been shown in two solo exhibitions, most recently Ordinary People Reloaded (2010) at the Readytex Gallery in Paramaribo; and in group exhibitions in Suriname, the Netherlands, and the United States, notably Paramaribo SPAN (2010) and Wrestling with the Image: Caribbean Interventions at the Art Museum of the Americas, Washington, DC (2011).

Ramsamoedj’s participation in ACT 5 is supported by the Readytex Art Gallery, Paramaribo.

Read Christopher Cozier’s notes on Ramsamoedj’s Adjie Gilas installation at the Paramaribo SPAN blog.

See a portfolio of images from Adjie Gilas with a brief essay by Nicholas Laughlin in the May 2010 Caribbean Review of Books.

Read Nicholas Laughlin’s short essay on Flexible Man in the April 2011 ARC.

Michelle Isava

2011-07-31T04:07:00.012-04:00

Proyecto Zapato Viajero / Travelling Shoe Project
Open call / First Collection of Shoes: Trinidad
Tuesday 2nd August 12.00 - 9.00 pm.

" We have been historically affected by migration; all in different ways. With this project I invite people to share their shoes as statements of where they have been and where they are going thus sharing movement and walking in each other's footsteps..."

The first stage of this project starts at Alice Yard. This will be the collection point in Trinidad. The collected shoes will be transported to Venezuela early the following morning. In Venezuela a similar call is being sent out to collect shoes to be brought over to Trinidad for the exchange. Once the shoes are exchanged, all actions and appropriations can be begin.

Tuesday 2nd August 12.00 -9.00 pm to drop off Shoes at Alice Yard
From 7. pm - 9. pm there will be open discussion to brainstorm and illustrate the possibilities of this exchange between all interested participants.

Once shoes are exchanged, the participant is responsible for what is done to the shoes.
The action is digitally documented and emailed to:
zapatoviajero.travellingshoe@gmail.com

The documentation would then be posted on to the blog to share the process as it happens. When all actions are completed all shoes will be collected for a travelling show.
See the blog here

Proyecto Zapato Viajero initiates the 2nd chapter of Alice Yard's Proximities dialogues

ACT 5: Ebony G. Patterson: 9 of 219

2011-07-22T14:06:00.014-04:00

Monday 25 July, 2011, at 7.00 pm

In September 2011, Alice Yard will celebrate its fifth anniversary as an independent space for creative experiment. We mark the occasion with a programme of events that consider contemporary visual art’s engagement with performance: ACT 5.

As part of our anniversary programme, and continuing our ongoing participation in regional art dialogues, Alice Yard has invited a series of artists from the wider Caribbean to create site-specific actions.

The first of our anniversary artists-in-residence is Jamaican Ebony G. Patterson. On Monday 25 July, at 7 pm, she will present her work in progress 9 of 219. Both an installation and a performance, the work will stage a version of a “bling” funeral using the artist’s characteristic heavily decorated objects. Audience members are asked to participate by bringing candles to join in the vigil.

All are invited.

About the artist:

Born in Kingston in 1981, Ebony G. Patterson is a graduate of the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts in Jamaica and Sam Fox College of Art and Design at Washington University, St. Louis. She is currently assistant professor in painting at the University of Kentucky. She has exhibited her work in several solo shows in Jamaica and the United States, most recently Ebony G. Patterson: On the Wall and in the Gallery at the Monique Meloche Gallery in Chicago; and in group shows including Wrestling with the Image: Caribbean Interventions at the Art Museum of the Americas, Washington, DC; the 2008 and 2010 Jamaica National Biennials; Rockstone and Bootheel: Contemporary West Indian Art at Real Art Ways, Hartford, Connecticut; the 2009 Ghetto Biennale in Port-au-Prince; and You Are Here at Fondation Clément in Martinique. One of her digital photographic works was included in Shot in Kingston at Alice Yard in September 2010.

Read a conversation between Patterson and Oneika Russell at sx space.

Entourage (2010; digital print, 204.5 x 306 cm), by Ebony G. Patterson

A conversation with Joanna Crichlow and Brianna McCarthy

2011-07-14T22:34:00.003-04:00

From the Blueprints series, by Joanna Crichlow

On Saturday 16 July, 2011, at 7.00 pm, artists Joanna Crichlow and Brianna McCarthy will discuss their recent work and their respective interests in portrayals of the female form, in a conversation moderated by Christopher Cozier at Alice Yard.

All are invited.

About the artists:

Joanna Crichlow is a Barbadian artist whose work explores what she calls “industrialised idealism”. A recent BFA graduate of Barbados Community College, she is currently artist in residence at Alice Yard.

Brianna McCarthy is a Trinidadian artist whose drawings and mixed media works investigate ideas of beauty and diversity. She was recently profiled in the April 2011 issue of ARC magazine.

Chocolate Lady, by Brianna McCarthy

Artist in residence: Joanna Crichlow

2011-07-04T10:59:00.001-04:00

Mirror, Mirror, from the Blueprints series

Alice Yard is hosting Barbadian artist Joanna Crichlow for a two-week residency in early July 2011. A recent BFA graduate of Barbados Community College, Crichlow explores what she calls “industrialised idealism” and portrayals of the female body in her two-dimensional works. She will give a public talk about her practice and her experiences in Trinidad at a date to be announced.

This residency continues Alice Yard’s engagement with regional art dialogues, and follows past residencies and visits by Sheena Rose of Barbados, Heino Schmid and John Cox of the Bahamas, O’Neil Lawrence of Jamaica, Marcel Pinas of Suriname, and other artists from the wider Caribbean.

Richard Rawlins: Gotcha

2011-06-21T17:54:00.002-04:00

23 to 24 June, 2011

Gotcha, a show of recent work by artist Richard Rawlins, will run at Alice Yard for two nights, Thursday 23 and Friday 24 June, 2011, from 7.00 pm. The second night of the show will include a performance by dancer/choreographer Dave Williams.

Rawlins writes:

“Gotcha can be considered a three-part examination of us. It continues my look at the shape of our Trinidad ‘politrix’ in the age of KAMALOT — the state of the Trinidad and Tobago under Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar — from a perspective that observes the festering anger of a new class of dissenters. We like to think that ‘tyre burning’ is relegated to one class of people in society, but the thing that fuels tyre burning as a tool of dissent is in all of us. It’s just bubbling under the surface.

“The show consists of a series of thirty paintings, some of which are of characters with over exaggerated lips and eyes representing our ‘watching and silent waiting and bubbling’ for something to happen. There is also an examination through a screenprint collaboration with artist Suzanne Nunez as well as buttons of a ubiquitous and lasting element of our Trinidad and Tobago culture, our picong, the ‘Megee’: the ‘five fingered fart’, the ‘fowl bottom’, that fools you again and again (coincidentally it ties in with other work in the show, symbolising our five-party coalition government, the People’s Partnership). Rounding it all up is a monograph featuring an introduction by artist/designer Adele Todd, a Megee musing by writer Tracy Hutchings, an essay on art and politics by Andre Bagoo and a number of new and ongoing design explorations of our age of KAMALOT and our unresolved NAPA ‘tabanca’.”

Low Lives 3 International Festival of Live Networked Performances

2011-04-29T01:30:00.008-04:00

Live stream from Alice Yard tonight
Friday April 29th from 8-12pm.

April 29 – 30, 2011
Produced and Curated by Jorge Rojas
Co-produce by Chez Bushwick

About Low Lives 3
Low Lives 3 is the third installment in a series of annual international art events. Low Lives 3 features more than fifty live performance-based works over two days, each transmitted over the web and projected in real time at 24 venues across the globe.

Participating Artists
Annie Abrahams / Lukas Avendaño / Chloe Bass + Brian Balderston / Camille Baker / Tzitzi Barrantes / Rachelle Beaudoin / Black & Jones / Caroline Boileau / Catherine Cabeen and Company / Jennifer Chan / Tyrone Davies / Joseph DeLappe / dev01ded / Alfred Dong / Nancy Douthey / Eosin (Diana Combo) / Julie Fotheringham + Jarryd Lowder / Second Front / Scapegoat Garden (Deborah Goffe) / Carlos Gonzalez / Katelena Hernandez / Ajeesh K.B. + Santhosh V.S. + Hemabharathy Palani / Jayson Keeling / La La La Singers / Gabriela León + Saúl López Velarde + Daniel Weinstock / Shaun El C. Leonardo / Anya Liftig / Kristin Lucas / James Mbunju and Company / Saul Melman / Marcello Mercado / Jui Mhatre + Jaee Joshi / Julio Cesar Morales + Juan Luna-Avin / Irvin Morazan + Maya Jeffereis / Kendall Nordin / Molly O'Connor (Molliver) / Julian Palacz + Bernhard Garnicnig / So Percussion / SaBa / Marisol Salanova / Rosa Sanchez + Alain Baumann / Byd Sarret / Jenny Schlief / Carmen Sober / Alan Sondheim / Nathan Stevens / Zornitsa Stoyanova (Here[Begin]Dance) / Channel TWo / Frans van Lent / Claude van Lingen / Ginna Alejandra Vélez Carrasco / Rodell Warner / Ian Warren / Heather Warren-Crow / Rebecca Weiner / Paul Wiersbinski /

Presenting Partners
Alice Yard / Aljira, A Center for Contemporary Art / Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts / AE District / Box 13 / Center for Performance Research / Chez Bushwick / Co-lab / Crossing Art Gallery / Diaspora Vibe Gallery / DiverseWorks / Elon University Department of Art & Art History / Fusebox Festival / Headspace / Konic Thtr / La Periferia / La Perrera / Living Arts / MACO, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca / Mascher Space Co-op / Mindpirates / Obsidian Arts / On the Boards / Portland Institute for Contemporary Art / QMAD, Queens Media Art Development / Real Art Ways / Simba Theatre Art International / SOMArts / the temporary space / Utah Museum of Fine Arts / Village Museum / WORM Vienna /
Watch Low Lives 3 online:
www.ustream.tv/channel/low-lives-3

see Web Catalogue here

ARC magazine Trinidad launch

2011-04-17T12:25:00.001-04:00

Wednesday 27 April, 2011, at 7 pm
In partnership with the Bocas Lit Fest

Image by Brianna McCarthy

Launched in January 2011 by artists Holly Bynoe and Nadia Huggins of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, ARC is “a Caribbean art and culture magazine dedicated to highlighting emerging and established artists.”

Alice Yard is pleased to host the Trinidad launch of ARC on Wednesday 27 April, from 7 to 9 pm. The programme includes an exhibition of works by artists featured in the magazine and spoken word performances. Both editors will be present, and copies of the second issue of ARC, fresh off the press, will be available for sale. This event is part of the 2011 Bocas Lit Fest, the first annual Trinidad and Tobago Literary Festival.

All are invited.

Read an interview with Bynoe and Huggins published at Antilles, the Caribbean Review of Books blog, in January 2011.

See the full programme of events for the 2011 Bocas Lit Fest here.

High science: a conversation with J. Brent Crosson

2011-03-27T17:53:00.003-04:00

Tuesday 29 March, 2011, at 7 pm

J. Brent Crosson is a doctoral candidate in cultural anthropology at the University of California and a researcher affiliated with the University of the West Indies, St Augustine. He is currently in Trinidad and Tobago on an eighteen-month Fulbright research grant. From November 2010 to February 2011, he was based at Alice Yard.

He describes his research:

“My broader project examines spirits as cultural archives, especially for mute or concealed histories, where embodied practice is the method for remembering. I am also interested in Trinbagonian perceptions of superstition — who or what counts as obeah — and the relation of these perceptions to modernity and postcolonialism. Finally, I am looking at how ‘high science,’ as sorcery is sometimes known in the Caribbean, relates to the science that emerged out of the Enlightenment in its approach to materiality.”

On Tuesday 29 March, 2011, at 7 pm, Crosson will give a presentation at Alice Yard on his current fieldwork. There will also be an opportunity for members of the audience to engage him in dialogue. His talk will focus on his fieldwork in Moruga on the south coast of Trinidad:

“From the mass hysteria/demonic possession at the local secondary school to the descent of helicopters and military personnel to the town savannah, the first week I spent in Moruga was punctuated by events that conjured the place of this region in the national imaginary. These two events, especially the former, stirred local and national debates regarding the relation of belief in supernatural forces, on the one hand, and rural economic livelihoods, on the other, to postcoloniality, development and modernity. My research examines the complex relations and convergences between religion and rationality, spiritual and psychological forces, modernity and belief, and rural and urban spaces that these events in Moruga conjured.”

All are invited.

Crosson can be contacted at jcrosson@ucsc.edu.

Celebrating Independent Mas

2011-03-25T13:28:00.002-04:00

Friday 25 March, 2011, at 7 pm

Robert Young and Lupe Leonard of Vulgar Fractions will host an evening celebrating contemporary independent mas at Alice Yard. Featuring slideshows of images from Carnival 2011 and live entertainment, the event will include visual contributions from:

Cat in Bag Productions: Snake in the Grass
Vulgar Fractions: Coalition
Alice Yard Players: When Arima Rained
Generation Lion Jouvay: Cleanse
Mas Jumbies: Bourgeois

The Cloth 25 + Alice Yard Pop-up Shop, featuring clothing and design objects by Trinidadian designers, will also be open.

All are invited.

A conversation with Shani Mootoo

2011-03-19T12:37:00.004-04:00

Thursday 24 March, 2011, at 7 pm

Shani Mootoo is an internationally acclaimed writer, artist, and experimental filmmaker. Born in Dublin of Trinidadian parents, she grew up in San Fernando and now resides in Canada. She is currently writer in residence at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine.

She is the author of three novels: Cereus Blooms at Night (1996), He Drown She in the Sea (2005), and Valmiki’s Daughter (2008), as well as a collection of short stories and a book of poems. Her films have been screened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and at the Venice Biennale.

On Thursday 24 March, 2011, at 7 pm, Mootoo will read from her recent work at Alice Yard, and talk about her writing process and creative concerns. The programme will also include a screening of several of her short film works. Copies of her books will be available for purchase.

This event is a collaboration with Paper Based Bookshop.

All are invited.

Greta Mendez and Akuzuru: What Lies Beneath the Skirt of Globalisation? and A Poem for Desi

2011-03-12T19:29:00.001-04:00

Thursday 17 March, 2011, at 7.00 pm

From a performance by Greta Mendez in Shimla, India, during Art Karavan International 2010

What Lies Beneath The Skirt of Globalisation? and A Poem For Desi are two performance works which integrate sculptural installation and movement to establish form.

Over the Carnival season, artists Akuzuru and Greta Mendez have been meeting at Alice Yard to construct and develop a collaborative narrative work, incorporating mixed multimedia and movement. Playing to their strengths, Akuzuru has contributed the installation and design, and Mendez the concept and text.

They write:

“The convoluted narratives of both works are connected by the interrogation and analysis of the human condition through the web of those persistent artificial webs and matrices that shroud the consciousness of the everyday.

“A visceral presentation that challenges the gaze of external participation, this multi-sensorial projection offers to restore the dormant calamity that plagues the mind.”

Running time: 1 hour, 10 minutes

From Vein (2009), a performance work by Akuzuru

About the artists:

Greta Mendez is a performance artist, dancer, producer, director, carnivalist, and choreographer. Originally hailing from Fyzabad, Trinidad, she moved to London very early in her life to expand her horizons in dance. Over her forty-year career she has performed and choreographed worldwide, including projects in Greece, India, Italy, and China. She has received the BP & National Westminster Dance and Mime Award, a New York International Film and Video Award, a Dance Fellowship from the Greater London Arts Council, and been awarded a Travel Bursary by the Arts Council. In April 2009, she presented her performance work Ndulgence at Alice Yard.

In 2010 Mendez participated in Art Karavan International, an initiative developed by Indian artist Inder Salim. She joined the Karavan in Shimla and journeyed on to Jammu, Srinagar, and Delhi. The central premise was to involve local Indian and international artists, to find a vehicle for common expression and common ground.
In her forthcoming Alice Yard presentation, she will share some of the work created, tell a few anecdotes, and introduce the work of artists from India, Serbia, and China.

Akuzuru is an experiential artist known for her many multi-layered performances and large sculptural-installation works, which have been shown internationally at venues in the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Interdisciplinary in approach, she creates intense experiences, working primarily in the natural environment in site-specific situations. She has presented and exhibited her work at Notting Hill Carnival in London, LIFT-London International Festival of Theatre, the 2nd Biennale de Martinique, and the Rockstone & Bootheel exhibition at Real Art Ways in Hartford, Connecticut. She has received a Commonwealth Fellowship Scholarship to Nigeria and a Commonwealth International Artist Residency to India, among other awards. In November 2009 she presented her installation and performance work Vein at Alice Yard.

All are invited.

Alice Yard Players: When Arima Rained

2011-02-15T15:59:00.001-04:00

Detail of costume from When Arima Rained

“When Arima rained, soul-dears from the constellation of life showered breaths of light from a colourful night sky.”

Since 2007, siblings Lupe and Sean Leonard have produced a children’s Carnival masquerade band based at Alice Yard. Every presentation has attempted to sensitise young people to their environment, Trinidad and Tobago, by drawing reference to the culture, geography, flora, and fauna of their homeland. The costumes incorporate found and recycled objects from the natural and man-made environment.

The Alice Yard Players’ 2011 presentation is called When Arima Rained. Arima — which means both “place of the beginning” and “water” — is an indigenous Amerindian place name for what is now a large town in eastern Trinidad. The band’s mythical narrative attempts to bring these two definitions together, in three elements: 

Canopy: Spectrum — The Night Cloud 
Players: Soul-dears of Light 
Character: Arima Night 

For further details:

http://nimblett.no-ip.biz/kiddies/
Email: lupeleonard@hotmail.com
Telephone: (868) 490-8853

Vulgar Fraction: Coalition

2011-01-26T11:00:00.002-04:00

Carnival 2011

Photographs by Arnaldo James

Vulgar Fraction, the independent mas band led by designer Robert Young of The Cloth, launched its Carnival 2011 presentation, Coalition, at Alice Yard on Tuesday 25 January. Coalition is a collaboration between Young and designer Lupe Leonard.

The designers explain:

“Coalition represents a pact or treaty among individuals or groups, within which they co-operate in joint action. While each individual serves his own interest at times, they have all come together for a common cause. However, since the alliance may have been formed as a matter of convenience, it may last only temporarily.”

Leonard has been producing children’s mas for approximately five years, while Young has maintained an almost fifteen-year presence “on the road” for Carnival.

“Vulgar Fraction has consistently advocated a return to true creativity, art and design for masqueraders”, says Young. “But the process becomes even more interesting when each person gets involved in designing and building part of their own costume themselves.”

Vulgar Fraction will provide potential masqueraders with a variety of design components they can use to decorate their costumes themselves — a practice similar to elements of the sailor mas tradition. (For further information, contact Robert Young at 471-2041.)

The Alice Yard launch included music by 3canal, Moyenne, tilla the sound boi killer, and North West Laventille Cultural Movement.

Wrestling with the Image

2011-01-23T14:15:00.004-04:00

21 January to 10 March, 2011, at the Museum of the Americas, Washington, DC

Wrestling with the Image: Caribbean Interventions is an exhibition of contemporary art from twelve Caribbean countries, curated by artist and Alice Yard co-director Christopher Cozier and art historian Tatiana Flores. It opened at the Art Museum of the Americas in Washington, DC, on 21 January, 2011, and runs until 10 March.

The participating artists include several from Alice Yard’s creative network or who have shown their work at Alice Yard in recent years. The exhibition e-catalogue, with essays by Cozier and Flores, designed by Richard Rawlins and published by Draconian Switch, can be downloaded here.

View of one of the galleries at Wrestling with the Image, featuring work by (on walls, left to right) Phillip Thomas of Jamaica, Jean-Ulrick Désert of Haiti/Germany, Rodell Warner of Trinidad and Tobago, and (floor) Marcel Pinas of Suriname. Photograph by Nadia Huggins

Toussaint et George (2010), by Nikolai Noel, from Wrestling with the Image. Courtesy the artist

Work by (left to right) Tonya Wiles of Barbados and Ebony Patterson of Jamaica. Photograph by Nadia Huggins

Mobile Portrait Studio: Lara Stein Pardo and Rodell Warner

2011-01-12T12:33:00.005-04:00

Friday 14 January, 2011, at 7.30 pm

From Mobile Portrait Studio, Port of Spain, January 2011

Mobile Portrait Studio, a project by Lara Stein Pardo, considers people, public spaces, performance, and personal interaction in relationship to the role of portraiture, art-making, memory, and historical narratives. Mobile Portrait Studio ran in two locations in Miami in December 2010. The Port of Spain version is a collaboration between Stein Pardo and Rodell Warner.

On 11 January, 2011, Stein Pardo and Warner made a series of portraits of passersby on Ariapita Avenue in Woodbrook. In the second stage of their collaboration, they will operate the Mobile Portrait Studio at Alice Yard on Friday 14 January from 7.30 pm. Volunteer participants can have their portraits taken and will receive a free print. The images will be digitally preserved as part of a larger series of artworks.

Stein Pardo and Warner will also screen the portraits taken on 11 January, and engage in a conversation about the project, their other recent work, and their interest in portraiture.

All are invited.

About the artists:

Lara Stein Pardo is an artist and PhD candidate in sociocultural anthropology at the University of Michigan. She is currently a visiting researcher in the Center for Latin American Studies at the University of Miami and artist-in-residence at the Deering Estate in Cutler Bay. Her artwork, research, and writing revolve around place, gender, race, ethnicity, art, and artistic practice in the US and the Caribbean. She works in the medium of photography, installation, performance, and short film.

Rodell Warner is an artist and designer. His recent work includes the interactive installation Photobooth during Erotic Art Week 2009 and 2010, and the ongoing portrait series Closer. Other work in progress is documented at his blog, Free Paper. He is a member of Alice Yard’s network of creative collaborators.

From Mobile Portrait Studio, Miami, December 2010

A conversation with Richard Fung

2011-01-05T11:21:00.005-04:00

Tuesday 11 January, 2011, at 7.30 pm

Still from Rex vs. Singh (2008)

Richard Fung is a Trinidad-born, Toronto-based video artist and writer. His single channel videos and projections have been widely exhibited and collected internationally, and his articles have been published in numerous journals and anthologies. He is the co-author with Monika Kin Gagnon of 13: Conversations on Art and Cultural Race Politics. Fung has been a Rockefeller Fellow at New York University, and a visiting professor at the Mass Communication Research Centre at Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi. He teaches at OCAD University.

On Tuesday 11 January, Fung will give a talk at Alice Yard about his recent projects and current work in progress. The event will include a screening of Fung’s recent video work Rex vs. Singh (2008; 29:25 minutes), made in collaboration with Ali Kazimi and John Greyson.

In 1915, two Sikh mill-workers, Dalip Singh and Naina Singh, were entrapped by undercover police in Vancouver, British Columbia, and accused of sodomy. This experimental video stages scenes from their trial, told four times: first as a period drama, second as a documentary investigation of the case, third as a musical agit-prop, and fourth, as a deconstruction of the actual court transcript. Rex vs. Singh was commissioned by the Queer History Project of Out on Screen, Vancouver Queer Film Festival.

All are invited.

For more information about the artist, see: www.richardfung.ca.

All Your Houses: A Reading by Vahni Capildeo

2010-12-29T12:36:00.001-04:00

Tuesday 4 January, 2011, at 7 pm

The man next to me on the ten-hour flight has insomnia. His white clothing is in layers, and neat. He repacks his hand luggage, which is full of gifts. He was an athlete who represented his nation. Injury and necessity sent him to the factory near Croydon to make plastic cups. He is too big to ignore, even if he had not confided to me his fear of the losses that night shifts make in his mind. The art of memory becomes a topic of discussion. Will his family remember him? His trip is a secret....

Vahni Capildeo is a Trinidadian writer who has lived in Britain since 1991. Her poetry includes No Traveller Returns (2003), Person Animal Figure (2005), and Undraining Sea (2009). On Tuesday 4 January, 2011, at 7 pm, Capildeo will read from her recent work at Alice Yard. The programme will include excerpts from her prose work All Your Houses, accompanied by a series of images by Andre Bagoo, part of an “intertextual dialogue” ongoing over the past two years.

All are invited.

Robert Young/The Cloth: Things You May Appreciate

2010-12-18T11:11:00.003-04:00

Saturday 18 to Friday 24 December, 2010

Model with dress and handbag from The Cloth, Caribbean Fashion Week 2009

Robert Young, designer for The Cloth, has curated a year-end sale of clothing, accessories, and art by Trinidadian designers. Things You May Appreciate includes accessories and clothing from The Cloth, jewelry by Akilah Jarimoogi, Christmas decorations and handbags by Lupe Leonard, clothing by Shurnel Oliviere, handbags and jewelry by Jacqueline Charles, jewelry by Olivia Fern, and paintings by Brianna McCarthy.

Saturday 18 December, 8 am to 6 pm, and Sunday 19 to Friday 24 December, 10 am to 7 pm, at Alice Yard.

For information, call (868) 471-2041.

Unidos por la Musica

2010-12-12T18:47:00.004-04:00

Wednesday 15 December, 2010, at 6.30 pm

Alice Yard’s final event for 2010 is an exhibition of photographs documenting contemporary parang music in Trinidad, with a performance by the parang group Los Amigos Cantadores.

Isabella Elizalde is a student at Trinity College, Connecticut. She has spent the Fall 2010 semester working in Trinidad under the mentorship of photographer Mark Lyndersay. Her series of photographs titled Unidos por la Musica documents Los Amigos Cantadores over several months leading up to the 2010 Christmas season. (Read Elizalde’s short statement about the photographs at the Trinity at Alice Yard blog.) Alice Yard will host an exhibition of Elizalde’s images for one night, and Los Amigos Cantadores will perform from 6.30 pm sharp.

This is also an opportunity to celebrate the end of the year with Alice Yard’s creative partners.

All are invited.

COCO Dance Festival 2010

2010-11-26T19:06:00.002-04:00

Alice Yard and Bohemia, 26 to 28 November, 2010

The Contemporary Choreographers’ Collective, COCO, is a group of independent choreographers — Dave Williams, Nicole Wesley, Nancy Herrera, and Sonja Dumas — offering performance support for choreographers working in unconventional ways in Trinidad and Tobago. COCO will host its second annual dance festival, from Friday 26 to Sunday 28 November, 2010, in a series of unusual spaces.

The 2010 COCO Season, called the Moving Movement Museum, is a series of dances presented in two Woodbrook back yards which already have a tradition of performance: Alice Yard on Roberts Street and, two blocks away, Bohemia at 33 Murray Street. The first half will be at Alice Yard, and the second half at Bohemia. Patrons will be treated to a gallery of live performances created by an A-list line-up of both established and emerging choreographers: Dave Williams, Nicole Wesley, Rachel Lee, Gregor Breedy, Akuzuru, Anika Marcelle, and Sonja Dumas, as well as choreography students from dance programmes at the University of Trinidad and Tobago and the University of the West Indies. “Even the intermission is exciting,” says COCO co-director Sonja Dumas. “Movement will lead you from one space to the other.”

Schedule:

Friday 26 and Saturday 27 November: 8.00 pm
Sunday 28 November: 7.00 pm

Tickets are available from the choreographers and the organisers. Call 622-4426 to make reservations.

Alice Yard in The Global Africa Project: Peera, by Marlon Darbeau

2010-11-16T12:49:00.004-04:00

See more images of the Peera prototype at Marlon Darbeau’s blog

Designer Marlon Darbeau’s Peera, a “design investigation” of a traditional furniture form, is featured in The Global Africa Project at the Museum of Arts and Design.

Darbeau writes:

“This project further investigates the idea of convergence, the utilisation of different modes of making.

“It is a culmination of many moments where a designer engages with an architect to design and build ... not a building but the architecture of a small object. Collaborating with Sean Leonard over the last year has brought up questions of multiplicity ... the nature of Alice Yard forces one to consider improvisation and demands a thing to have many purposes (a series of simple metal chairs is used for seating today, tomorrow they are shelves for displaying items).

“Ideas about rethinking and remaking the familiar challenge the way we see ourselves and the things we have grown up with. Christopher Cozier has appropriated the peera bench in a series he titles Little Gestures. while he sees it for its symbolic value, this object for me is a design investigation.”

From Marlon Darbeau’s sketchbook

Alice Yard in The Global Africa Project: Made in China, by Christopher Cozier

2010-11-16T12:03:00.004-04:00

Artist Christopher Cozier’s Made in China, a three-dimensional version of an image that recurs in his recent works on paper, is featured in The Global Africa Project at the Museum of Arts and Design.

Cozier writes:

“‘Made in China’ stamps have been so much a part of our lives growing up in Caribbean. In the past it was pencils and plastic pencil-sharpeners, yellow twelve-inch rulers, etc. Modest items with all the associations of developing countries and low level consumption. Today, in the same locations, for people with bigger budgets, it is monolithic structures and narratives of progress.

“I bought this little stamp in a mall in Port of Spain. I began to see these little stamps more and more over the years. Apparently they are quite commonly used for labelling objects on arrival in small shops. Why are they being labelled like this here in Trinidad? What is the value of labelling my work this way in narratives of development and progress? So far I have begun to label drawings of pedestals for politicians to stand upon. Within the narrative of ‘development’ this object can allow them to feel taller and more important, or they could use it to hang themselves.”

Read more at Christopher Cozier’s blog

Alice Yard in The Global Africa Project: A Work in Progress

2010-11-15T11:34:00.001-04:00

Alice Yard: A Work in Progress is a short video produced by Artzpub Films for our participation in The Global Africa Project, documenting the physical and critical spaces of the Yard and its creative network.

A conversation with Marlon Griffith

2010-11-10T07:32:00.002-04:00

Thursday 11 November, 2010, at 7.30 pm

From the Powder Box Schoolgirl series (2009), by Marlon Griffith

Marlon Griffith, a member of Alice Yard’s network of collaborators, is the recipient of a 2010 Guggenheim Fellowship and a 2010 Commonwealth Connections International Arts Residency. He is currently preparing to travel to Nassau, where he will work for several months supported by the Commonwealth residency. On Thursday 11 November, Griffith will give an informal talk at Alice Yard about his recent projects and work in progress.

All are invited.

Artist’s statement:

“Marlon Griffith is an artist whose practice is based upon a reciprocal dialogue between mas (the artistic component of Trinidad Carnival) and art as a means of investigating the phenomenological aspect of the embodied experience: it is situated at the intersection of the visual and public performance.

“Through this he has created installations and performance-based works which operate outside the context of mas and which look at fundamental questions in perception and how these actions respond to contemporary culture. In his refashioning of Carnival forms, the work challenges both commercialisation of Trinidad’s rich traditions of performance and their various appropriations by both Afro- and Indo-Trinidadians.

“Through this work he is able to use symbols that define Caribbean society and social groups, which are stripped down to their basic form and abstracted to create new images and narratives that are both public and participatory, responding critically and poetically to the socio-cultural environment which powerfully evokes the uneasy tension-filled interdependency between competing social groups that shapes contemporary Caribbean societies.”

4x4: Sheena Rose and Lauren Hinds: Parallel Narratives

2010-09-30T13:58:00.007-04:00

Friday 1 October, 2010, at 8.00 pm

Conceptual sketches by Sheena Rose and Lauren Hinds

The final event in 4x4, Alice Yard’s fourth anniversary programme, is a collaborative project by Barbadian artist Sheena Rose and Trinidadian artist Lauren Hinds.

Rose was artist in residence at Alice Yard in May 2009, when she presented her animated video work Town. She recently participated in a residency and exhibition in Cape Town. Hinds, who works in the medium of the graphic novel, recently completed a year-long programme at the Centre for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vermont.

The two artists have spent a week working collaboratively, and will present their work in progress alongside recent solo works. Their collaboration began with an exchange of visual images from their respective environments in Barbados and Trinidad, which they attempted to interpret and respond to. Audience members on Friday night will have the opportunity to create their own interpretation of the resulting visual narratives, before the artists reveal the details of their stories.

All are invited.

4x4: O’Neil Lawrence on the Kingston scene

2010-09-28T10:35:00.003-04:00

Wednesday 29 September, 2010, at 8.00 pm

O’Neil Lawrence

The fourth event in 4x4, Alice Yard’s fourth anniversary programme, is a talk by Jamaican artist and curator O’Neil Lawrence on recent developments on the Kingston art scene.

Lawrence is one of the artists featured in Shot in Kingston: The Digital Scene, an exhibition of digital photo- and video-based work which opened at Alice Yard on 15 September. He is also a curator at the National Gallery of Jamaica. He will give an informal talk on current trends in Jamaica and the artists included in Shot in Kingston.

All are invited.

For more information on the artist, visit his website: www.oneillawrence.com

4x4: Heino Schmid: Equilibrium

2010-09-26T12:03:00.005-04:00

Monday 27 September, 2010, at 8.00 pm

Still from < (temporary horizon) (2010, video), by Heino Schmid

The third event in 4x4, Alice Yard’s fourth anniversary programme, is Equilibrium, an exhibition of new work by Bahamian artist Heino Schmid.

Supported by a Commonwealth Connections international arts residency, Schmid has been living and working at Alice Yard since May 2010. Equilibrium presents a series of new works and works-in-progress in several media, created during his time in Port of Spain, and also shown at the 2010 Liverpool Biennial.

He writes:

“The context of much of my work is concerned with narrative and the reconsideration of personal stories in the public forum. Using a variety of media, such as video, drawing, installation, and photography, I investigate the often simple, sometimes irrelevant encounters and collisions between people and their environments.

“Although I strive for universal metaphors, I approach each body of work in a very personal way. Using self-referential experiences as an avenue to illuminating collective experiences, I hope to reveal the subtle social dramas that inform our lives and ultimately bring those realities to the forefront for discussion.

“The image above (from < (temporary horizon)) combines the use of common material and repetition to candidly examine the shifting tensions between action and inertia, balance and imbalance. The positioning of the two bottles, though fragile and ultimately unsustainable, evokes surprise through its temporary equilibrium, with a false horizon created as a byproduct of this balancing act.”

All are invited.

About the artist:

Heino Schmid was born in 1976 in Nassau, the Bahamas. In addition to his own practice, he is adjunct lecturer for the School of Communication and Creative Arts at the College of the Bahamas; curator of the Central Bank of the Bahamas Art Gallery; and exhibitions director of Popopstudios Centre for the Visual Arts, a non-profit artists’ co-op where he also holds a studio.

For further information, visit his website: www.heinoschmid.com.

4x4: Outward Reach

2010-09-19T22:14:00.008-04:00

Friday 24 September, 2010, at 8.00 pm.

John Cox in his studio. Photograph by Christopher Cozier

Marcel Pinas at his Moiwana Monument, commemorating the victims of the Moiwana Massacre in 1986. Photograph by Christopher Cozier

The second event in 4x4, Alice Yard’s fourth anniversary programme, is Outward Reach, a conversation about regional art networks and collaborations between John Cox, Marcel Pinas, and Christopher Cozier.

John Cox is a Bahamian artist whose mixed media works “sample” images from mass media. He is the founder of the Popopstudios Centre for the Visual Arts, an independent studio and art gallery dedicated to the preservation and advancement of alternative Bahamian visual culture. Popopstudios hosts an ongoing residency programme for international artists.

Marcel Pinas is a Surinamese artist. His work, which he has shown widely in the Caribbean and internationally, draws on his Ndjuka heritage. He is the founder of the Kibii Wi Foundation, which has established a community art education project, an artists’ residency programme, and a sculpture park in the Maroon community of Moengo.

Cox and Pinas will speak about their respective programmes and networks in the Bahamas and Suriname, and engage in a conversation about cross-Caribbean collaboration with Alice Yard co-instigator Christopher Cozier and members of the audience.

All are invited.

4x4: Shot in Kingston

2010-09-13T23:25:00.005-04:00

Details of Chair (2010), by Keisha Castello, and Enthroned Madonna (2010), by Marvin Bartley

The first event in 4x4, Alice Yard’s fourth anniversary programme, is Shot in Kingston: The Digital Scene, an exhibition of digital photo- and video-based work by seven younger Jamaican artists.

Curated by Christopher Cozier and O’Neil Lawrence, Shot in Kingston includes work by:

= Marvin Bartley
= Keisha Castello
= Stefan Clarke
= Marlon James
= O’Neil Lawrence
= Ebony Patterson
= Oneika Russel

Opens Wednesday 15 September, 2010, at 8.00 pm, with further opportunities for viewing on Friday 17 September (7.00 to 9.00 pm); Saturday 18 September (7.00 to 9.00 pm, when Cozier will be available for informal conversation about the works); and Wednesday 29 September (8.00 to 10.00 pm), or by special request.

All are invited.

Alice Yard’s fourth anniversary programme

2010-09-05T21:42:00.008-04:00

September 2010 is Alice Yard’s fourth anniversary as an independent space for creative experiment. This year we mark the occasion with 4x4, a programme of events focusing on Alice Yard’s regional network, and our creative collaborators in four specific Caribbean locations: the Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica, and Suriname.

= Wednesday 15 September, 2010: Shot in Kingston: The Digital Scene

The exploration of digital photo- and video-based work is a significant recent trend among younger Jamaican artists. Shot in Kingston assembles work by Marvin Bartley, Keisha Castello, Stefan Clarke, Marlon James, O’Neil Lawrence, Ebony Patterson, and Oneika Russell, curated by Christopher Cozier and O’Neil Lawrence.
Exhibition opening 8.00 pm

= Friday 17 September: Alice Yard jam

Alice Yard is an important centre for musical creativity and exchange, offering rehearsal and performance space to numerous bands and individual musicians. Sheldon Holder of 12 the band will curate an acoustic jam session bringing together a number of musicians associated with Alice Yard, in an update of the “Conversations in the Yard” series that ran from 2006 to 2008.
7.00 to 9.00 pm

= Friday 24 September: Outward Reach

Alice Yard’s Caribbean network includes independent contemporary art institutions in the Bahamas and Suriname. Artists John Cox of Popopstudios in Nassau and Marcel Pinas of the Kibii Wi Foundation in Moengo join Christopher Cozier in a conversation about regional collaborations and future possibilities.
8.00 pm

= Monday 27 September: Heino Schmid: Equilibrium

Bahamian artist Heino Schmid has been living and working at Alice Yard since May 2010, supported by a Commonwealth Connections International Arts Residency. Equilibrium is a new work created during his time in Port of Spain, also presented at the 2010 Liverpool Biennial.
8.00 pm

= Wednesday 29 September: O’Neil Lawrence on the Kingston scene

O’Neil Lawrence is an artist and curator at the National Gallery of Jamaica. He will give an informal talk on current trends in Jamaica and the artists included in Shot in Kingston.
8.00 pm

= Friday 1 October: Sheena Rose and Lauren Hinds

Barbadian Sheena Rose was artist in residence at Alice Yard in May 2009, when she presented her animated video work Town. She recently participated in a residency and exhibition in Cape Town. Lauren Hinds is a Trinidadian artist working in the medium of the graphic novel. She recently completed a year-long programme at the Centre for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vermont. Rose and Hinds will spend a week working together, then present their collaborative project to the public, together with recent solo works.
8.00 pm

Further details of each event will be posted at the Alice Yard website during the 4x4 programme.

All are invited.

Richard Rawlins: Chinese Worker

2010-08-23T10:37:00.003-04:00

26 to 28 August, 2010

Richard Mark Rawlins Chinese Worker Promo from artzpubfilms on Vimeo.

Now almost as globally ubiquitous as the “Made in China” stamp, Chinese construction workers are changing the landscape, both internationally and here in Trinidad and Tobago. In his new body of work, artist Richard Rawlins offers a visual commentary on this phenomenon.

Chinese Worker opens at Alice Yard on Thursday 26 August at 7.00 pm, and runs until Saturday 28. The opening night will include a special performance by Dave Williams.

Rawlins says:

“Chinese Worker is another one of my investigations into the things that make us Trinidad. I actually admire what they have done. And, putting all the political footballs aside, we are left with structures that they built almost overnight. Whether you like it or not, they are now on our landscape, and I think that needs to be recorded.”

About the artist:

Richard Rawlins is a visual artist, graphic designer, and photographer. He has worked in advertising for the last twenty years. He is the publisher of the online magazine Draconian Switch. He showed his 2010 Button Project at Alice Yard in May.

Woodbrook Touchdown

2010-08-13T15:21:00.003-04:00

13 August, 2010, 7.00 pm

Lamp (2010), by Alixzander Morle, from the Abricktted series

Woodbrook Touchdown, an exhibition of art and design by Alixzander Morle, opens at Alice Yard on Friday 13 August, 2010, at 7.00 pm, and continues until Monday 16 August (7.00 pm t0 11.00 pm daily). Morle is a student at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia. He previously exhibited his work at Alice Yard in December 2008.

There are three elements to the show:

Abricktted
A series of sculptural/painted objects using found materials. Morle writes: “Upon reaching Trinidad I came across some abandoned bricks in my garage. Something about the way they were placed in a corner made me notice them. They had been collected and placed there for disposal. The desolate bricks had history, though, they once made up the wall I grew up seeing every Woodbrook morning, a wall right outside my studio. I decided to salvage some bricks and make some pieces.”

SML Clothing
aMorle designs and SISTM Mental Wear have fused together to create SML Clothing, a new line of urban fashion. SML strives to represent the “wearable art” movement. Whether it is a parody of an everyday brand or political satire, SML guarantees a quality shirt with a head-turning image. SML initially meant “small, medium and large”, but the initials can refer to anything: sex, money, and laundry, or sophisticated, magnanimous, and limited.

The aMorle Summer Collection
A series of recent paintings, with a live graffiti painting performance by Morle and fellow artist JAP. In the last two months Morle has been working on a “Peace, Love, Respect” public mural project in the Woodbrook neighbourhood, with examples on Carlos Street and at the corner of Roberts and Rosalino Streets.

Introducing the 2010 Cropper Foundation workshop writers

2010-06-29T13:55:00.004-04:00

Detail of Hop Skip Jump, from the Tropical Night series (2006–), by Christopher Cozier

On Friday 9 July, 2010, at 7.00 pm, Alice Yard will host a reading by participants in the 2010 Cropper Foundation Caribbean Writer’s Workshop.

This year is the tenth anniversary of the workshop, which is sponsored by the Cropper Foundation and organised in partnership with the Departments of Creative and Festival Arts and Liberal Arts of the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine. The workshop will assemble thirteen poets and fiction writers from across the Caribbean for nearly three weeks of intense writing and discussion at the Jammev Estate in Toco.

The 2010 workshop will be steered by writers Merle Hodge and Funso Aiyejina, along with James Christopher Aboud, Elizabeth Walcott-Hackshaw, Philip Nanton, Ian Randle, and Earl Lovelace.

Many of the current group of writers are already published authors and prizewinners:

= Andre Bagoo
= Christine Barrow
= Shakirah Bourne
= Abinta Clarke
= Yarisa Colon-Torres
= Keon Francis
= Danielle Boodoo-Fortune
= Desiree MacEachrane
= Phillip Murray
= Alake Pilgrim
= Shivanee Ramlochan
= Colin Robinson
= LeShanta Roop

Participants will read selections from their current work in progress. This is an opportunity to meet and hear from talented and promising members of the next generation of Caribbean writers.

All are invited.

A conversation with Heino Schmid

2010-06-01T10:37:00.005-04:00

Friday 4 June, 2010, from 7.30 pm

The Subject Is the Object (2008; charcoal, graphite, and acrylic on paper; 324 x 72 inches), by Heino Schmid

Alice Yard is currently hosting its second Commonwealth artist-in-residence: Heino Schmid from the Bahamas. He is a 2009 recipient of the Commonwealth Foundation’s Commonwealth Connections international arts residency, and has chosen to use his award grant to visit and work in Trinidad.

On Friday 4 June, 2010, at 7.30 pm, Schmid will give an informal talk at Alice Yard about his previous work and his interest in Trinidad. This is an opportunity for artists and others to meet him and learn about the contemporary art scene in the Bahamas.

All are invited.

About the artist:

Heino Schmid was born in 1976 in Nassau, the Bahamas. In addition to his own practice, he is adjunct lecturer for the School of Communication and Creative Arts at the College of the Bahamas; curator of the Central Bank of the Bahamas Art Gallery; and exhibitions director of Popopstudios Centre for the Visual Arts, a non-profit artists’ co-op where he also holds a studio.

Schmid will be living and working at Alice Yard until September.

For further information, visit his website: www.heinoschmid.com.

RICHARD RAWLINS / BUTTON PROJECT 2010

2010-05-14T15:12:00.000-04:00

Friday 21st May, 2010 • 7PM • Alice Yard.
80 Roberts Street, Woodbrook, Port of Spain

You are invited to see the musings
of visual artist, RICHARD RAWLINS -
in this our favourite silly season -
through his multi-media
“Button Project”.

ninety-nine buttons up on a wall,
ninety-nine buttons upon a wall,
before the night’s done,
you should have bought them all,
ninety-nine buttons bought
off the wall.

(IN) SECURITIES & "OUR HOME ": Wednesday May 12th, 6-10pm

2010-05-11T20:00:00.020-04:00

Project presentations by Jeanika B. Springer & Nicolette J. Laume.

Click on image to see Flickr set

(IN) SECURITIES
"...I will be showing a combination of photographs and stop motion videos, constructing my own ongoing relationship and thoughts about security and boundaries in both it's physical manifestations, and social manifestations..." NJL

Click on image to see Flickr set
"OUR HOME"
"...Dealing with the interior space as a way of artistic expression and emotional / psychological influence... For my final photography project, I wanted to get my hands dirty and do something for the greater good. After being in Trinidad for a semester, I thought it important to leave a valuable mark on the place that future participants could enjoy. I am going to remodel our Program House! This presentation will showcase my analysis, discoveries, and progress." JBS
"Our home" will consist of two presentations - tonight "our home on the terrace" of Alice Yard and on Thursday 13th at 13 Harris St. Curepe, the actual re-designed space.
For further details, go to Trinity at Alice Yard site.

RED BAND MAXI

2010-05-02T13:50:00.011-04:00

MONDAY MAY 3rd, 6-10PM / One night only.

Installation and photographs, produced in Trinidad, looking at Red Band Maxi Taxis, on the ARIMA/POS. route , by Andrea Wise from
Trinity College, CT, USA. Go to the Trinity at Alice Yard site for more information.
Red Band Maxi will be the first of this current series, consisting of three student internship presentations, at Alice Yard. The next two presentations by Jeanika B. Springer and Nicolette Laume will follow on May 12th.

Streaming in Michelle Isava

2010-05-01T16:12:00.005-04:00

Alice Yard streaming in Michelle Isava's performance, "En_Cell" during her on-line participation in "low-lives-2."

The artist requested that we call her mobile phone during the performance. It was an experimental, 5 minute, "interactive work."

Low Lives 2
Curated by Jorge Rojas
El Museo del Barrio co-presenting with Aljira, Fusebox Festival co-presenting with Co-Lab, Galería de la Raza co-presenting with ATA, Diaspora Vibe Gallery, The Temporary Space, Terminal, Obsidian Arts and Studio 304 present:
Friday, April 30th, 2010 8:00pm - 11:00pm (EST)

Proximities continues

2010-04-28T17:59:00.001-04:00

Watching Ivan Monforte’s Que Te Vaya Bonito at Alice Yard, 22 April, 2010. Photo by Christopher Cozier

Alice Yard’s Proximities programme continues this week with video installations on Thursday 29 and Friday 30 April.

===

Schedule

Thursday 29 April, 2010, 8-10 pm
Mulatta/Mestiza, by Yvette Mattern
Los Diarios de Porcelana, by La Vaughn Belle

Friday 30 April, 2010, 8-10 pm
Ways of Making Love in US, by Diana-Sofia Estrada
Que Te Vaya Bonito, by Ivan Monforte
La Mala, by Sandra Vivas

The videos will be installed in various spaces at Alice Yard, and will play simultaneously and continuously throughout each evening.

More information about this programme and the participating artists here.

Proximities

2010-04-16T15:13:00.016-04:00

22, 23, 29, and 30 April, 2010, from 8.00 pm

Still from Ways of Making Love in US (2006), by Diana-Sofia Estrada

Proximities is a programme of five artists’ videos posing questions about family and domesticity, intimacy and publicity, anxieties and appetites. Curated by artist and Alice Yard co-instigator Christopher Cozier, Proximities explores the medium of video, its immediacy, and its relations with performance, spontaneity, and self-revelation.

Cozier writes:

“I experienced most of these works in various exhibitions or while travelling between 2007 and 2008, and one or two were sent to me. They had an impact on me and lived with me because of their relatively simple and/or efficient use of video, and because the expression and/or investigation of intimacy — the use of self as subject — the personal and its relation to the public space, especially in the anglophone Caribbean — are concerns that are rarely directly visualised.

“Also, Trinidad is seven miles off the coast of the South American continent. Most of these works come from or engage the Latin American world — a space, history, and sensibility we share but also rarely engage.”

Still from Que Te Vaya Bonito (2007), by Ivan Monforte

Still from La Mala (2008), by Sandra Vivas

===

The programme includes:

Ways of Making Love in US (2006)
Diana-Sofia Estrada

Que Te Vaya Bonito (2007)
Ivan Monforte

La Mala (2008)
Sandra Vivas

Mulatta/Mestiza (2007)
Yvette Mattern

Los Diarios de Porcelana (2003)
La Vaughan Belle

Installation view of Mulatta/Mestiza (2007)

===

Schedule:

Thursday 22 April, 2010, 8-10 pm
Ways of Making Love in US
Que Te Vaya Bonito
La Mala

Friday 23 April, 2010, 8-10 pm
Mulatta/Mestiza
Los Diarios de Porcelana

Thursday 29 April, 2010, 8-10 pm
Mulatta/Mestiza
Los Diarios de Porcelana

Friday 30 April, 2010, 8-10 pm
Ways of Making Love in US
Que Te Vaya Bonito
La Mala

The videos will be installed in various spaces at Alice Yard, and will play simultaneously and continuously throughout each evening.

===

Still from Los Diarios de Porcelana (2003), by La Vaughn Belle

About the artists:

Diana-Sofia Estrada is an artist based in Los Angeles. She writes: “My work creates geographies crafted out of the substance of trade itself,” and “I often use narrative to explore a possible situation in life. I am interested in implicating the memory or truth of one’s point of view, and I use my own subjectivity as a starting point for this investigation.” She has had several solo shows in California and Texas, and participated in a number of group projects and exhibitions. She was born in Houston, Texas.

Ivan Monforte’s interdisciplinary practice uses simple gestures and materials, as well as emotional language and content, as strategic tools to address themes of loss and mourning; representations of gender, race and sexuality; and the pursuit of love. He has shown at Bronx Museum of the Arts, New Fest 2005, Haven Artspace, and Longwood Art Gallery, all in New York; MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles; and California Institute of the Arts, Valencia. He was born in Mérida, Yucatan, Mexico, and is based in New York.

Sandra Vivas is a video and performance artist who has described her work as “conceptual pastiche that deals with the irony of things from our daily lives, the questioning of certain ideas taken for granted, certain clichés.” She has had several solo shows in Venezuela, and participated in group exhibitions there and in Buenos Aires, New York, Miami, and other locations. Originally from Venezuela, she now lives in Dominica.

Yvette Mattern is an artist whose work intersects the disciplines of performance, cinema, and avant-garde opera, and has been exhibited, screened, or performed in numerous locations internationally. Her most recent project, Seven rays of coloured light in a white cube (Freies-Museum, Berlin) is a version of the large public installation Global Rainbow, which premiered in New York in 2009. She was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and now lives between New York and Berlin.

La Vaughn Belle is an artist living and working in the Virgin Islands. She writes: “I like things provincial and domestic. I used to paint figures and symbols. While living in Havana, I started throwing parties on buses, asking neighbours to exchange objects and making animations of figurines on their living room tables.” She has shown her work in solo shows in St. Croix and Cuba, and participated in group exhibitions and projects such as the Bienal del Caribe in Santo Domingo, the Havana Biennale, and the Big River residency in Trinidad. She was born in Tobago.

Celia Weiss Bambara: work-in-progress

2010-03-24T14:46:00.005-04:00

Thursday 25 March, 2010, at 8.00 pm

Celia Weiss Bambara is an American dancer, choreographer, and scholar, and artist in residence with the Makeda Thomas/Roots and Wings Movement Dance and Performance Institute. During the final phase of her residency, she has been living and working at Alice Yard.

On Thursday 25 March, at 8.00 pm, Weiss Bambara will perform a new site-specific work-in-progress at Alice Yard. She writes:

“Choreographic and improvisational ideas have a way of growing, shifting, and changing. I had originally intended to present a new improvisation at Alice Yard and discuss a bit about some of current working methods. Two things altered this improvisational path.

“Firstly, upon arriving at Alice Yard, I became entranced with the contours of the space and energies at work in the nooks and joints in between structures. Each one of these spaces seems to have a set of layered histories, and I began contemplating a site-specific work that would engage these spatial dynamics and energies.

“Secondly, I was confronted with the actuality of daily violence in Trinidad, and realised that I needed to process my reactions through my own corporeality and movement. In the US, I had been working on a set of ideas for a new piece, which addresses the cyclical and intergenerational nature of violence. Some of the questions that I have been asking are: How does grand-scale violence precipitate daily violence? How do we stop cycles of violence on our bodies? Can we find a moment of non-violence amidst daily violences?

“Research that correlates these ideas, experiences, and space will be shown as work-in-progress at Alice Yard. Aiybobo!”

All are invited.

About the artist:

Celia Weiss Bambara is co-artistic director of the CCBdance Project, an African-based contemporary dance company formed in 2006 with Burkina Faso-born Christian Bambara. She has danced for JAKA in Port-au-Prince and Martin Dancers in Los Angeles, among others. Between the late 1990s and 2003, Weiss Bambara worked with artists in Port-au-Prince on projects that combined Haitian, modern/contemporary, and other African diasporic dance forms. Her choreography and the work of the CCBdance Project have also been shown in Los Angeles, Chicago, Iowa, Michigan, Cuba, and Jamaica. She holds a PhD in dance history and theory/critical dance studies from the University of California, Riverside, and is currently a visiting lecturer at the University of Illinois, Chicago.

Richard Rawlins: Alice Bangi

2010-03-22T23:44:00.002-04:00

Richard Rawlins's design sketches for the Alice Bangi

Visiting Suriname at the end of February for the Paramaribo SPAN exhibition, Alice Yard collaborator Richard Rawlins was inspired by artist Roberto Tjon A Meeuw's Fatu Bangi project.

A fatu bangi is a traditional item of outdoor furniture often found on roadsides in rural Suriname. "Bangi" is the Sranan word for bench, and "fatu" means big, but also refers to an informal gathering of friends, a lime. Often made from scrap wood, the fatu bangi is a big bench for liming--a spot to sit and observe the world go by, share stories and ideas.

On his return to Trinidad, Richard set about his own bangi project at Alice Yard. He writes this note:

“Wow,” I said to Sean Leonard, chief architect of Alice Yard. “I want one.” That desire and inspiration would basically see me through the fourteen-hour residency project of building Trinidad and Tobago’s first ever fatu bangi with my partner Mariel Brown.

My recent trip to Suriname left me buzzing with an incredible amount of ideas and creative energy. My first fatu bangi experience in Suriname was the work of artist Roberto Tjon A Meeuw outside the DSB Bank in Paramaribo, and later his other humungous creation inside the bank’s compound.

I’ve called my interpretation Alice Bangi, after the yard of course. The Alice Bangi actually breaks into two sections, to facilitate easy movement of the piece as it traverses round the yard. It also allows for additional back rests to be created from time to time.

This Alice Bangi is meant to be a major participant in the life of the yard.

Richard Rawlins, Mariel Brown, and Sean Leonard, working on the Alice Bangi, Saturday 13 March, 2010. Photos by Christopher Cozier

The final touches on the Alice Bangi, which will take place over time, are 3x3-inch stencils recording every major occasion, show, or artist's project that passes through the yard. The first stencils record initiatives like free+three, Erotic Art Week, 12 the Band, INDIgroove TV, Draconian Switch, Jemima Charles's Cones project, and others.

Above: Sean Leonard relaxing on the completed Alice Bangi. Below: stencils on the seat of the Bangi record recent events and projects at Alice Yard. Photos by Richard Rawlins

12 at Real Art Ways

2010-03-16T18:43:00.003-04:00

12 the Band's 2009 album Streets and Avenues; packaging designed by Marlon Darbeau

12 the Band, led by Sheldon Holder, will perform at Real Art Ways in Hartford, Connecticut, on Thursday 18 March, from 6 pm. This event is associated with Rockstone and Bootheel: Contemporary West Indian Art, an exhibition which opened in November 2009. (Rockstone and Bootheel includes projects by several artists associated with Alice Yard, including Christopher Cozier, Marlon Griffith, Jaime Lee Loy, Wendell McShine, Sheena Rose, and Dave Williams. In addition, Richard Rawlins of Draconian Switch has designed and produced a series of Rockstone e-catalogues, and filmmaker Mariel Brown's documentary The Solitary Alchemist was included in the exhibition's film series.)

12's US tour also includes several performances in New York. For a schedule, see the band's website. 12 has been based at Alice Yard since September 2006, and Holder has been a key instigator of many events and activities in this space.

Founded in 1975, Real Art Ways is "an alternative multidisciplinary arts organization that presents and supports contemporary artists and their work, facilitates the creation of new work, and creatively engages, builds, and informs audiences and communities." Jamaican artist Kristina Newman-Scott is RAW's director of visual arts, and co-curator with Yona Backer of Rockstone and Bootheel.

The Alice Yard team in Suriname

2010-03-03T15:48:00.005-04:00

Sean Leonard, Christopher Cozier, Nicholas Laughlin, and Richard Rawlins of Alice Yard at the Moiwana Monument, Marowijne, Suriname; 28 February, 2010. Photo by Jurgen Lisse

Four members of the Alice Yard team recently spent a week in Suriname, participating in activities around the Paramaribo SPAN project, a conversation about contemporary art in Suriname. SPAN includes three platforms: an exhibition, which opened on Friday 26 February, 2010, and runs until 14 March; a book published in three language editions; and a blog which is both a journal and an archive.

Alice Yard co-instigators Christopher Cozier and Nicholas Laughlin are, respectively, co-curator of the SPAN project and editor of the SPAN blog. Visiting Paramaribo for the opening events of the SPAN exhibition, they were accompanied by Alice Yard founder Sean Leonard and partner Richard Rawlins, the publisher of Draconian Switch.

Paramaribo SPAN is conceived in part as a bridge connecting artists and other creative practitioners in Suriname with their contemporaries elsewhere in the Caribbean. This trip offered many formal and informal opportunities for the Alice Yard team to explore common ideas, interests, and goals, and begin planning future collaborations. Apart from the SPAN exhibition opening and other events in Paramaribo, the Alice Yard team visited the town of Moengo, east of Paramaribo, where artist Marcel Pinas has founded an art park and art education centre. Sean spent two days in Moengo investigating Marcel's project, and conceptualising ways for himself as an architect and Alice Yard as an institution to support and collaborate with Marcel's Kibii Foundation.

Other Alice Yard team members engaged creatively with the SPAN project in different ways. Nicholas, who is also co-editor of the literary magazine Town, published a special issue coinciding with SPAN, and Richard has collected material for an upcoming SPAN issue of Draconian Switch. And Alice Yard has started conversations about hosting Surinamese artists in Trinidad as part of our modest residency programme.

Jemima Charles: Cones

2010-01-19T01:46:00.003-04:00

20 to 25 January, 2010

Cones is an "interactive exhibition of colour and light transparency" by the young artist Jemima Charles. She writes:

"Cones deals with visual perception and the role of the retina. The cone is one of the basic building blocks of form construction, and seeing is one of the processes of visual art. The viewer interacts with the work when light coming from inside the work falling on the retina of the eye generates visual stimuli that are transmitted to the brain via nerve impulses. Arriving impulses are combined with established experiences and habits of seeing, thus visual perception can differ from person to person....

"Perceptions can be influenced by social connections, political connections, spiritual connections and many more. I hope that the viewer will leave marks of intimate relationships they have to these colours."

The materials of this project are inspired by the art of nebuta, a Japanese paper lantern festival. In 2008, Charles participated in a nebuta workshop in Japan. On returning to Trinidad, in order to further explore the medium, she began experimenting with wire-bending and basic geometrical shapes.

The artist will begin installing Cones at Alice Yard two days before the formal opening. On Wednesday 20 and Thursday 21 January (12.00 to 7.00 pm), visitors are welcome to participate in the installation by helping to paint the paper cones. (Please bring a paintbrush.)

The exhibition opens at 7.00 pm on Friday 22 January and runs until Monday 25.

All are invited.

Helping Haiti

2010-01-13T13:48:00.005-04:00

Child’s shoes, Haiti, 2002

Following yesterday’s catastrophic earthquake in Haiti, many people in the Caribbean are keen to help with relief efforts. The MEP blog has posted a list of links to international agencies which are accepting money donations online, as well as information on groups based in Trinidad organising donation drives, including:

= Foodstuffs, blankets and clothing can be dropped off (please label all bags) to the COP (Congress of the People) Flagship Office on the corner of Tragarete Road and Broome Street in Port of Spain between 9am and 3pm

= ITNAC (Is There Not A Cause) is collecting non-perishable food items, clothing, bedding, temporary building supplies, medical supplies, and toiletries. For details, contact Avonelle Hector-Joseph (firstsamuel1729@yahoo.com) or Mellissa Lezama (868-714-5610/396-3330)

We urge all friends of Alice Yard to make a donation of some kind. Recovery from this disaster will be long, painful, and very expensive. It’s still unclear how many thousands of people have been injured or killed, and damage to Haiti’s infrastructure seems immense.

For ongoing coverage, see the Haiti Earthquake 2010 special coverage page at Global Voices.

UPDATES: Silicon Caribe has posted information on where to make donations of food, clothes, etc. in Jamaica.

Another list of relief links from Miami-based Jamaican writer Geoffrey Philp.

Other international NGOs who have launched appeals:

Partners in Health: community-based health services in Haiti
Architecture for Humanity: supporting infrastructure reconstruction, including earthquake-resistant housing

•••

The photo above was posted online by Christopher Cozier in 2008. He wrote:

“This was the only photo from my entire time while in Haiti. On my last visit [in 2002], I just could not take pictures. I had to ask a colleague (Karole Gizolme) to take this image for me. I noticed the shoes on the ground near to where I was sitting. Something about the way that the shoes had become so worn out struck me. I kept thinking that no one growing child could have worn that shoe long enough for it to become so worn down. The shoes were just on the ground in a yard in the Capital.”

12 the Band (+ special guests) in performance

2010-01-07T15:57:00.001-04:00

Friday 8 January, 2010, at 7.30 pm

Sheldon Holder of 12 performing at Alice Yard. Photo by Richard Rawlins

2010 is nearly a week old, but it's not too late the celebrate the start of the new year with 12, Alice Yard's house band. On Friday 8 January, 12 will host a special concert with guest performers Blue Emperor, Gyazette, and Stop.Motion, at the rooftop terrace of Tamnak Thai (13 Queen's Park East, Port of Spain). The show starts at 7.30 pm, and tickets (purchasable at the door) cost $150.

The event will help raise funds for 12's upcoming trip to Hartford, Connecticut, where the band will perform at Real Art Ways as part of the ongoing Rockstone and Bootheel programme.

For more information, contact helloaliceyard@gmail.com.

Reading: Ishion Hutchinson and Valzhyna Mort

2009-12-31T15:58:00.003-04:00

Wednesday 6 January, 2010, at 7.00 pm

Ishion Hutchinson and Valzhyna Mort

Alice Yard is currently hosting its first two writers in residence, both poets: Ishion Hutchinson of Jamaica and Valzhyna Mort of Belarus. They are also the first residents of our new Habitat space, intended to host visiting artists, writers, musicians, and other creative practitioners interested in living and working in Port of Spain and interacting with Alice Yard’s creative network.

On Wednesday 6 January, at 7.00 pm, Hutchinson and Mort will read from their recent work at Alice Yard, and engage in a conversation about questions which their separate bodies of work address from different directions: language, translation, home, abroad, and personal and national history.

All are invited.

About the writers:

Ishion Hutchinson was born in 1983 in Port Antonio, Jamaica. He has an MFA from New York University and is currently researching his doctoral dissertation at the University of Utah. He has read at the Calabash International Literary Festival in Jamaica and participated in the Cropper Foundation Caribbean Writers’ Workshop. In 2005 his chapbook Bryan’s Bay appeared in the Calabash Chapbook Series, and his first full-length book of poems will appear in 2010.

Valzhyna Mort was born in 1981 in Minsk, Belarus. Her first book, I’m As Thin as Your Eyelashes (2005), was a collection of poetry, prose, and selected translations from Polish and English. Since 2006 she has lived in the United States, where she is a writer in residence at the University of Baltimore. She has also been a writer in residence at the Literarisches Colloquium Berlin and Sylt-Quelle in Germany and at the International Authors’ House in Graz, Austria. Her second book of poems, Factory of Tears, translated by Mort in collaboration with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Franz Wright and Elizabeth Oehlkers Wright, appeared in 2008.

I took my name from the aftersky
of a Mesopotamian flood,
birdless as if culture had shed its wings
into a ground vulture on the plain....

— from “A Surveyor’s Journal”, by Ishion Hutchinson

even our mothers have no idea how we were born
how we parted their legs and crawled out into the world
the way you crawl from the ruins after a bombing....

— from “Belarusian 1”, by Valzhyna Mort

The reading is co-hosted by Town.

Three young artists: Stanita Clarke, Justin Hay, Arnaldo James

2009-12-31T15:51:00.005-04:00

Alice Yard recently hosted the work of three young photographers, all of them university undergraduates.

Photo by Stanita Clarke

Stanita Clarke is a student at Trinity College, Connecticut. She spent the Fall 2009 semester working in Trinidad under the mentorship of Christopher Cozier. Her research focused on traditional architecture, the evolution of urban space, conservation, and preservation. On Monday 21 December she showed a series of photographs documenting Trinidad's urban fabric at this current moment of transition, and gave a short talk. She also documented her work at the Trinity at Alice Yard blog.

===

Photo by Justin Hay

Photo by Arnaldo James

On Wednesday 30 December, Justin Hay and Arnaldo James staged a collaborative exhibition of recent work in photography and other media. Hay is a student at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver. He showed a sequence of photographs alongside several works on paper and a sculptural work. James is a student at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine. He showed a sequence of 100 photographs, many of which also appear on his Flickr page.

The event also included music by DJ cozyprone metronome.

Another chance to visit the Alice Yard Shop

2009-12-22T11:05:00.005-04:00

Following the Alice Yard Shop exhibition and sale last Saturday, we've had many requests for a second opportunity to view and purchase artworks from the Shop inventory. Here's your chance: the Alice Yard Shop will open again on Thursday 24 December, from 1.00 to 7.00 pm.

Christmas Eve is an extremely busy time for many people, but if you need to buy an intriguing and unexpected last-minute present for someone--or simply want a break from errands, crowds, and traffic--stop by Alice Yard and take a look at our selection of artists' limited editions and multiples, design objects, and original artworks. Most of these items are modestly priced--you can pick something up for as little as a dollar--and all purchases help support Alice Yard and its programme of events.

Please spread the word--this is Alice Yard's first and only fundraising event for 2009--and if you can't make it to the yard on Thursday, you can still browse a selection of artworks at the new Alice Yard Shop website.

Artists with works in the Alice Yard Shop include Akuzuru, Ashraph, Christopher Cozier, Marlon Darbeau, Michelle Isava, Jaime Lee Loy, Brianna McCarthy, Kavir Mootoo, Nikolai Noel, Suzanne Nunez, Richard Rawlins, Seon Thompson, Rodell Warner, Adam Williams, Robert Young, and 12 the band.

As always, all are invited.

At the Alice Yard Shop opening

2009-12-20T14:21:00.006-04:00

Photographs (by Georgia Popplewell) from the opening exhibition and sale of artists’ works at the Alice Yard Shop, Saturday 19 December, 2009. Selected items are available for viewing and purchase at the new Alice Yard Shop website.

Works by Christopher Cozier, Nikolai Noel, Richard Rawlins, and Marlon Darbeau installed in Alice Yard’s gallery box.

Audience members view artworks on sale.

Alice Yard’s chief instigator, Sean Leonard, at the Shop opening exhibition.

See more photos by Georgia Popplewell here.

Introducing the Alice Yard Shop

2009-12-14T12:20:00.003-04:00

This coming Saturday, we will launch the Alice Yard Shop, a new intervention in Trinidad's commercial art market. Rather than a permanent retail outlet, the Shop is an exhibition and sale of artists' limited editions and multiples, design objects, and some original artworks, reasonably priced and intended to be affordable to beginning collectors. Every few months the Alice Yard Shop will exhibit a new selection of works and objects, which will also be available for purchase online.

The first Shop exhibition and sale opens at 6.00 pm on Saturday 19 December, 2009. It will feature objects by a range of artists who have been involved in Alice Yard's activities over the past year, including Akuzuru, Christopher Cozier, Marlon Darbeau, Michelle Isava, Jaime Lee Loy, Brianna McCarthy, Nikolai Noel, Suzanne Nunez, Richard Rawlins, Seon Thompson, Rodell Warner, Adam Williams, and Robert Young.

All are invited.

For more information, contact helloaliceyard@gmail.com

At the opening of The Dimming

2009-12-13T18:53:00.000-04:00

Images from the opening night of The Dimming, an exhibition of two series of drawings by Nikolai Noel, Friday 11 December, 2009.

The Dimming 2, a series of 100 drawings (graphite on paper), installed in Alice Yard's Habitat space. Photo by Nicholas Laughlin

The Dimming 1, a series of 25 larger drawings, installed in the gallery box. Photo by Nicholas Laughlin

The artist in conversation with Nicholas Laughlin. Photo by Richard Rawlins

(See more images from the opening of The Dimming here.)

Nikolai Noel: The Dimming

2009-12-09T09:43:00.004-04:00

Opens Friday 11 December, 2009, at 8.00 pm

From The Dimming (1)

The Dimming is a series of new drawings by Nikolai Noel — dark, puzzling, and by turns sinister, witty, sly. These works on paper play with ideas of narrative, sequence, congruence, consequence — notions of absence, isolation, harm, magic, fear — and cumulatively suggest either distress or sanctity, a state of peace, contentment, rest.

The drawings will be installed at Alice Yard for one week, and the exhibition opens at 8.00 pm on Friday 11 December.

All are invited.

From The Dimming (1)

About the artist:

Nikolai Noel grew up in the east Port of Spain district of Belmont and attended the John Donaldson Technical Institute before entering 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, with solo shows in 2002 and 2007.

He says: “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.”

Noel last showed his work at Alice Yard in December 2007.

At the Vein performance

2009-12-01T21:51:00.004-04:00

Images from Vein, a site-specific performance work by Akuzuru, Monday 23 November, 2009. All photos by Georgia Popplewell.

(See more images of the performance here.)

Akuzuru: Vein

2009-11-19T12:36:00.003-04:00

Monday 23 November, 2009, at 8.00 pm

Part of Akuzuru's Earthology performance, India, 2008

To coincide with the 2009 Commonwealth People's Forum in Port of Spain, and to celebrate the Commonwealth Foundation's support for artists via the Commonwealth Connections International Arts Residencies, Alice Yard will host a new performance work by Trinidadian artist Akuzuru on the evening of Monday 23 November.

In 2008, Akuzuru spent several months living and working in India with the support of a Commonwealth arts residency. The result was Earthology, a "spatial work in three acts" incorporating large-scale sculptural installations and performance. The entire project is documented in a limited edition catalogue titled Earthology India.

Vein, the new work which Akuzuru will create at Alice Yard, is a further installment in what she conceives as an "epic opus" unfolding in locations around the world. The performance will begin at 8.00 pm and run for approximately 45 minutes.

The event will also include a small installation documenting the work of Nigerian artist Ugochukwu Bright Eke, who was artist-in-residence at Alice Yard in 2008, supported by the Commonwealth Foundation.

Vein is part of the programme for the Creativity and Innovation component of the Commonwealth People's Forum. Delegates to the forum and representatives of the Commonwealth Foundation will attend, and Alice Yard invites members of the public to come and join in an informal conversation about creative connections across the Commonwealth.

All are invited.

About the artist:

Akuzuru is an "experiential artist" known for her performances and large sculptural-installation works. Interdisciplinary in approach, she creates experiences, working primarily in the natural environment. She has had solo exhibitions in the United Kingdom, Nigeria, South Africa, and various locations in the Caribbean. She was artist-in-residence at the Bag Factory in Johannesburg in 2002 and a participant in the 2006 Galvanize programme in Trinidad.

Esther Figueroa: Jamaica For Sale

2009-11-10T15:38:00.003-04:00

Wednesday 18 November, 2009, at 7.30 pm

Jamaica for Sale is a feature-length documentary film about the economic, social, and environmental impacts of tourism and unsustainable development in Jamaica, directed by Esther Figueroa and produced in collaboration with Diana McCaulay.

On Wednesday 18 November, Alice Yard will host the Trinidad and Tobago premiere of Jamaica For Sale, with director and producer Esther Figueroa in attendance. The film will be introduced by economist Norman Girvan, and afterwards Figueroa will engage the audience in an informal discussion.

All are invited.

The producers write:

“Though the Caribbean receives about five percent of the global tourist trade, it is the region most economically dependent on tourism. Heavily promoted since 1891 as the way to modernisation and prosperity, tourism has tragically failed in its promises, as Jamaica is one of the most indebted countries in the world. Lively, hard-hitting, with powerful voices, arresting visuals, and iconic music, Jamaica For Sale documents the environmental, economic, social, and cultural impacts of unsustainable tourism development. Filled with wit and penetrating observations from the streetwise to highly acclaimed academics, Jamaica For Sale engages with a cross section of Jamaicans: workers, small hoteliers, fishermen, community members, and environmentalists. As Jamaica is irreversibly transformed by massive hotel and luxury condominium development, Jamaica For Sale both documents this transformation and is trying to turn the tide. It is a cautionary tale not just for Jamaica, but all islands in the Caribbean.”

Winner of the audience award at the Africa World Documentary Film Festival and the Bronze Palm Award at the Mexico International Film Festival.

About the director:

Esther Figueroa is a Jamaican independent filmmaker, writer, educator, and linguist. She has twenty-five years’ experience in media production, including documentaries, educational videos, television programming, music videos, multimedia, web content, and feature film. An activist filmmaker, she focuses on local knowledge, indigenous cultures, social injustice, community empowerment, and the environment.

Proyecto Capital

2009-11-05T12:05:00.002-04:00

Friday 6 November, 2009, at 7.30 pm

Proyecto Capital is a collaboration among two Colombian artists, Alejandro Mina and Mar Molano, and Trinidadian artist Michelle Isava. As visitors to Trinidad, Mina and Molano were surprised by the number of small-denomination coins discarded in the streets of Port of Spain--money literally thrown away. Together with Isava, they began collecting coins from the streets of the capital city and documenting the process. The project will conclude with an installation of these found objects at Alice Yard, symbolically re-inserting this "capital" into circulation.

Isava writes:

"We have collected 500 5-cent coins, 987 25-cent coins, 498 10-cent coins, 7 50-cent coins (although they are no longer in use).... This installation seeks to give value to what is not valued here in Trinidad. To foreign eyes, coins on the streets are an absurd enigma that represents the extravagance and wealth of Trinidad and Tobago."

The project is documented at the Proyecto Capital blog.

The Proyecto Capital installation opens to the public at Alice Yard on Friday 6 November at 7.30 pm. Audience members can participate by taking the found coins away. All are invited.

“The Caribbean is really a critical space...”

2009-10-23T13:10:00.005-04:00

Critical Space is a short video featuring a conversation between Alice Yard co-instigator Christopher Cozier and Draconian Switch publisher Richard Rawlins. It explores ideas about how to define the Caribbean and its creative possibilities, and examines the collaborative networks, off- and online, that are evolving around Alice Yard and its partners.

The genesis of the video was an invitation for Cozier to participate in the Transformations: New Directions in Black Art conference, organised by Lowery Stokes Sims and Leslie King-Hammond at the Maryland Institute College of Art (22 to 25 October, 2009). Unable to attend in person, Cozier proposed that the conference screen a video conversation instead, and enlisted the creative team behind Draconian Switch as collaborators. The video was shot and edited in the space of forty-eight hours.

Critical Space is an artzpub films production. Director: Darryn Boodan. Editor: Tracy J. Hutchings. Photography: Rodell Warner, Richard Rawlins, and Damian Libert. Equipment provided by: Dave Williams, firsttfloor studios.

Introducing Town

2009-10-17T17:16:00.002-04:00

Broadsides from the first issue of Town posted at the entrance to Alice Yard

Town is a new literary magazine launched in October 2009, associated with Alice Yard. Planned to appear at irregular intervals (approximately every six to eight weeks), Town publishes poems, short prose, and art in broadside editions posted in public locations around Port of Spain, and online. It is edited by Alice Yard co-instigator Nicholas Laughlin together with writers Anu Lakhan and Vahni Capildeo. The first issue includes poems by the three editors, short fiction by Kelvin Christopher James, and images by Nikolai Noel. PDFs of all the broadsides from each issue of the magazine are available for download at the Town website. Readers can print copies and post them in their own neighbourhoods, homes, offices, or schools.

Read more about the project here, and see the table of contents of the first issue here. Photos of the Town broadsides around Port of Spain are posted here.

24HRS: Marlon Griffith

2009-09-15T12:21:00.002-04:00

For his 24HRS residency--part of the free+three programme--Marlon Griffith installed a series of "shadow drawings" on large fabric panels across the Alice Yard space. As audience members walked through and around the installation, their own shadows contributed to the spectacle.

(Alice Yard's 24HRS residency programme invites an artist to create a site- and time-specific work in the yard space over the course of a single day. The programme was conceived by Griffith. The first 24HRS artist was Barbadian Sheena Rose.)

Marlon Griffith and Christopher Cozier, silhouetted against a portion of the installation, discuss the 24HRS project in the context of Griffith's previous work.

A detail of the installation, showing one of the stencils used to project Griffith's drawings onto the fabric panels.

free+three photos

2009-09-11T11:26:00.002-04:00

Sheldon Holder performing with 12 the band at "Free yourself, be yourself", Wednesday 9 September, 2009, part of Alice Yard's free+three anniversary programme. The event also celebrated 12's tenth anniversary and the launch of their album Streets and Avenues. Photo by Richard Rawlins.

The audience in Alice Yard during 12's performance. Photo by Nicholas Laughlin.

Sean Leonard participating in a conversation about "The idea of free", Monday 7 September, 2009. Photo by Richard Rawlins.

Part of the audience at "The idea of free". Photo by Mariel Brown.

See more photos from free+three here, and the full programme of events here.

(Download your own) free+three posters

2009-09-07T16:38:00.002-04:00

Artist and designer Marlon Darbeau, one of Alice Yard's creative collaborators, has designed three posters for our free+three anniversary programme, incorporating photographs by Rodell Warner. They draw on the new wordmark typeface Darbeau has designed for Alice Yard, and the distinctive trapezium shape of the floorplan of the small gallery at the heart of our space.

From 7 to 14 September, 2009, during free+three, high-resolution PDF versions of the posters, suitable for printing, were available for download.

See the full free+three programme here.

Alice Yard's third anniversary programme

2009-08-28T15:35:00.009-04:00

Photo by Georgia Popplewell

In September 2009, Alice Yard marks its third anniversary as a space for creative experiment. We celebrate this small milestone with a modest programme of three events that explore in different ways the free conversation, collaboration, and improvisation that characterise Alice Yard.

= Monday 7 September, 2009: The idea of “free”

Alice Yard is part of a growing network of creative projects and initiatives supported by ideas, enthusiasm, and cooperation, rather than institutional structure. Sean Leonard, Alice Yard’s chief instigator, joins in a public conversation about “free” as a model for creative collaboration with the makers and doers of some of these allied projects: Richard Rawlins, Marlon Darbeau, Dave Williams, and Terry Smith, representing the Draconian Switch e-magazine, Trinidad and Tobago Erotic Art Week, and INDIgroove.
8.00 pm

= Wednesday 9 September, 2009: “Free yourself, be yourself”

Since September 2006, Alice Yard has been home to 12 the band, led by Sheldon Holder, and a centre for musical creativity and exchange. In a pre-celebration of the launch of their first album, Streets and Avenues, 12 will play an acoustic set reflecting on their first performance in the Alice Yard space three years ago. Before the performance, Christopher Cozier will join in a conversation with Sheldon Holder; Martin “Mice” Raymond, producer of Streets and Avenues; artist Wendell McShine, co-director of the video for 12’s song “Prosper”; and Marlon Darbeau, designer of the album’s innovative packaging.
8.00 pm

= Monday 14 September, 2009: 24HRS with Marlon Griffith

Artist Marlon Griffith’s practice is situated at the intersection of the visual and public performance. He has shown his work internationally in New York, Johannesburg, Kingston, Gwangju, Cape Town, and Toronto, among other locations, and has worked as a mas designer for many years in both Port of Spain and London. Griffith also conceived the idea for the 24HRS residency programme, in which an artist creates a site-specific work in the space of a day, influenced by interactions with anyone who passes through Alice Yard during that period. On 14 September he will take up temporary residence at Alice Yard and the resulting work will be presented to the public that evening. Artist Jaime Lee Loy — who has worked collaboratively with Griffith, and who was the first artist to present her work at Alice Yard — will give a short introductory talk.
7.30 pm

All are invited.

Gerard Gaskin: Trinidad Artists

2009-08-12T15:24:00.004-04:00

=
Tuesday 18 August, 2009, at 7.30 pm

Portraits from Gerard Gaskin's Trinidad Artists series. Clockwise from top left: film director and editor Walt Lovelace; artist Sabrina Charran; photographer Marlon Rouse; artist Jaime Lee Loy; musician Roger Roberts; photographer Abigail Hadeed

Photographer Gerard H. Gaskin's Trinidad Artists series is a work in progress, a survey of Trinidad's creative topography via portraits of three generations of visual artists, musicians, writers, performers, and others. Shot in a standard format--close up, in natural light and with a shallow depth of field--each portrait is an intimate encounter. "The impact of the world around the subject can be logically inferred only from the light, the expression, or from what is reflected in the eyes," writes Christopher Cozier.

Gaskin is currently in Trinidad shooting new portraits for the series, using Alice Yard's exterior spaces as his studio. On Tuesday 18 August he will give a talk about Trinidad Artists and his other recent projects, moderated by Cozier. Images from the Trinidad Artists series will be projected in the Alice Yard Space. All are invited.

(Visit Gaskin's website to see a portfolio of his work, and read Cozier's essay on Trinidad Artists in the August 2008 issue of The Caribbean Review of Books.)

Play on: Alice Yard's music conversations

2009-08-10T13:45:00.005-04:00

=

"Boom Up History" (2009), by 3Canal. Music video directed by Walt Lovelace and shot in the Alice Yard band room

The very first part of the Alice Yard space to become operational, in September 2006, was the small soundproof band room in the north-east corner of the yard. The room was designed by architect Sean Leonard, with advice on acoustics from sound engineer Yoichi Watanabe of Trinitone Ltd. Intended to be the headquarters for 12 the band, and managed by 12's leader Sheldon Holder, the band room is used by a range of musicians and bands for rehearsal sessions. Over the past three years, Alice Yard has come to be a crucial centre for musical creativity in Port of Spain, with activity by the following bands and individuals, among others (in alphabetical order):

= 12 the Band
= 3Canal
= Alison Hinds
= Blue Culture
= Cabezon
= Canboulay
= Chromatics
= Fuego Latino
= The Generals
= Gyazette
= jointpop
= Ken "Professor" Philmore
= The Nylon Pool
= The Orange Sky
= Palladin Project
= Rubadiri Victor
= The Sean Thomas Trio
= The Sky is Falling
= Stephanie Kalloo
= Theron Shaw
= Witch of the Bell Tower

The constant musical presence in the yard--the band room is occupied most nights of the week--has led to various fruitful creative encounters between musicians, artists and others. In early 2009, director Walt Lovelace shot a music video for 3Canal's song "Boom Up History" in the Alice Yard band room (see above), using clever camerawork and editing to compensate for the tight space. Not long after, artist Wendell McShine collaborated with 12 on an animated video for the band's song "Prosper":

Alice Yard has also hosted numerous live music performances. The conversation is ongoing.

"Patricia Gone with ... Millicent?"

2009-07-22T19:51:00.002-04:00

Thursday 30 July, 2009, from 7.30 to 9.30 pm

Lord Invader, the Mighty Growler, Atilla the Hun, and the Roaring Lion in 1943

What is one subject that calypso has handled with some of its sweetest ingenuity and subtlest imagination? Homosexuality, believe it or not! Come listen! Whether you love the calypso artform and Trini culture or you have a personal or family connection to the topic, join community organiser Colin Robinson, cultural critic Charleston Thomas and others in a tent-like atmosphere at Alice Yard, where they will take in some two dozen recordings of fascinating calypsoes from the 1950s to the present that display surprising wit and intelligence in their treatment of same-sex love. The audience will be invited to share their own memories of other treatments of the topic, talk about the meaning of the music, why dancehall and calypso treat so differently with the same issue, and what implications the music and its history might have for debates about homosexuality in the current political moment. Plans for Carnival season activities on the topic will also be aired.

This is a free event supporting the mission of a new coalition, CAISO (Coalition Advocating Inclusion of Sexual Orientation), to promote an inclusive, 20/20 vision of sexual orientation and citizenship in Trinidad and Tobago.

For more information, contact: 758-7676 or tntavp@gmail.com

Erotic Art Week 2009 at Alice Yard

2009-07-18T12:08:00.004-04:00

Alice Yard was one of ten locations participating in EroticArtTT, the 2009 Erotic Art Week (23 June to 2 July). Organised and curated by graphic designers Christian Alexis and Richard Rawlins, choreographer/writer Dave Williams, and architect Terry Smith, the Erotic Art Week programme included exhibitions and installations of visual work, a spoken word and poetry performance, and a discussion of erotic elements in Trinidad Carnival. Several dozen artists, musicians, and writers participated, at exhibition and performance venues scattered across a few blocks of Woodbrook.

Seven artists showed their work at Alice Yard: Marlon Darbeau, Jason Winter-Roach, Silverstar, Justine Hosein, Christine Healey, Sabrina Charran, and Rodell Warner. Below are some installation images. For more information, download the special Erotic Art Week issue of Draconian Switch.

Playful Things, by Marlon Darbeau, installed in the gallery space at Alice Yard. Photo by Damian Libert.

Photographs by Silverstar, installed in the residency apartment at Alice Yard.

Town, by Sheena Rose

2009-05-26T05:34:00.010-04:00

Video still from "Town"

Artist Sheena Rose, visiting from Barbados, will project her animated video work Town on Friday 29 May at 7 pm, at Alice Yard, 80 Roberts Street, Woodbrook, Port of Spain. The work will be introduced in dialogue with artists and writers Marsha Pearce and Jaime Lee Loy.

Rose is a recent graduate from the BFA programme at the Barbados Community College. Since graduating she has shown work at the Zemicon Gallery and in the Sign of the Times digital art exhibition at Queen’s Park in Bridgetown. Rose was also commissioned to produce an animated video as part of the Black Diaspora Visual Arts Symposium and Exhibition, curated by David A. Bailey in February 2009. Her participation at Alice Yard was funded in part by the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) Barbados and the OECS.

"The primary focus of my animation is something that I can arguably say everyone struggles with, and that is constantly thinking about our daily problems. There are not very many times during the day when our minds are at rest. We are always dwelling on something that we need to do, a broken relationship, how we are going to manage paying the electricity bill as well as buying new school uniforms at the end of the month, not driving the car unnecessarily because gas costs more now-a-days. I am interested in the daily lives of Barbadian people, especially with what is going on in their minds..."
-- Sheena Rose

Sheena Rose will also participate in Alice Yard's first 24HRS residency. A 24-hour site-specific improvisational artwork instigated by Marlon Griffith will begin on Monday 1 June at 12.00 pm. The public is welcome to visit and engage with the process.

A Photographic Exploration of Religious Life in Trinidad

2009-05-09T08:23:00.004-04:00

The Trinity of Trinidad
A Photographic Exploration of Religious Life in Trinidad
Photographs by: Erin Caner
click on the image to go to Erin's flickr site
Monday May 11, 2009
Opens at 7.00 PM
Alice Yard, 80 Roberts Street,Woodbrook, POS.
"I don't really know or understand what I'm looking at, being from a different culture, and I want to resist relying on tired stock imaging of what the Caribbean should look like, or a sort of 'orientalism' of Trinidad carnival, as an American outsider. It's complicated because so much of the culture, in my limited perception, appears to be mas or performance in itself. The culture is a performance. How does photography, capturing this performance-in-action, play into this? What's behind it all? I don't believe I've accomplished this investigative approach yet, but I would like to." - Read more here.
Co-sponsored by: Alice Yard & Trinity-in-Trinidad
Trinity at Alice Yard
Erin Caner, student at Trinity College in Hartford, CT, presents a series of photographs investigating the ways that religious life is performed and observed in Trinidadian society. Focusing on three religions in the country: Hinduism, Christianity, and the Shouter Baptists, the exhibition opens at 7.pm, and all are welcome!

Mother Mas and the Junk Jester

2009-05-06T18:35:00.013-04:00

click on the image to go to Erin Caner's flickr site
A Performance by: Haben Abraham & Thea Button
Friday May 8th, 2009
Performance will start at 7:30 pm
Alice Yard, 80 Roberts Street, Woodbrook, POS
Co-sponsered by: Alice Yard & Trinity-in-Trinidad
Students of Trinity College in Hartford, CT, Button and Abraham have spent this past semester in Trinidad developing an experimental performance piece exploring society, location, and situation on Friday May 8th at 7:30. All are welcome! Feel free to check out their blog Trinity at Alice Yard for a sneak preview and to see how they got to where they are.

Also, on Monday night, look out for:
The Trinity of Trinidad
A Photographic Exploration of Religious Life in Trinidad
Photographs by: Erin Caner
Monday May 11, 2009
Opens at 7.00 PM
Alice Yard, 80 Roberts Street,Woodbrook, POS.
Co-sponsored by: Alice Yard & Trinity-in-Trinidad
Erin Caner, student at Trinity College in Hartford, CT, presents a series of photographs investigating the ways that religious life is performed and observed in Trinidadian society. Focusing on three religions in the country: Hinduism, Christianity, and the Shouter Baptists, the exhibition opens at 7.pm, and all are welcome!

Greta Mendez at Alice Yard

2009-04-08T10:20:00.006-04:00

In collaboration with Alice Yard, Paul Kain and Robert Young, of the Cloth, London based Greta Mendez will perform a fragment of the her multi-media contemporary performance work, Ndulgence on Thursday April 9th at 8.pm.
Bring an extra eyebrow pencil and or lipstick.

Ndulgence uses images, text and calypsos, they collide and weave to get create a dramatic whole.
'Ndulgence tells a story of a Caribbean woman (Madam Glo) who has lived most of her life in Europe, struggling for her identity, amidst the daily bombardment of the “perfect image”…. The 'Ndulgence journey is not unique, it is an everyday story of the aging women and identity but it would be told in an original and powerful way. Most of us as migrant people struggle for our identity as we are always on the margins even when we are appear to operating within the society. When we return to our countries of origin we are also seen as outsiders. Migrant peoples clutch onto their traditions but some host countries favour assimilation on their terms. The need to be glo/bal is also forging a new manufactured identity.

".... there is a folk character called Mama Dlo/Dglo, Mama del’eau mother of the water. She sometimes takes the form of a beautiful woman and sits singing silent songs on still afternoons. She is really a houilla (wheel-a) anaconda; she makes cracking loud sounds with her tail. To escape Mama Dglo take off your left shoe, turn it upside down…..leave the scene walking backwards until you reach home and then there is Glo/bal"

"Everywhere we go there are images telling us what to wear, what to drive, what we should look like and so on"

Ndulgence highlights the external--social issues--and internal pressures pushing and pulling against each other in and around her. The need to find a voice in a society in which she is invisible, but how can she be obsessed with her image?
How can she be so indulgent when?

"Vagrants and destitutes on the street
Infants with simply nothing to eat
Is arming, disarming, alarming droughts and
famine
The overlords and a chosen few making the whole world blue"
-- Calypsonian Baron

Moyenne and Philip Nanton in performance

2009-03-25T22:51:00.016-04:00

Friday 27 March, 2009, at 8.00 pm

This Friday, Alice Yard presents a double bill: the jazz ensemble Moyenne preceded by a performance of Island Voices by Philip Nanton.

"Wake Up Call", by Caroline "bops" Sardine.
Image courtesy Khalil Goodman and the artist.
Click here to see video sequence of Nanton discussing the work at Zemicon Gallery, Barbados

Philip Nanton's Island Voices is located on the imaginary Caribbean island state of St. Christopher and the Barracudas. It is a place where anything can happen and the wrong thing usually does. These dramatic monologues and dialogues, ranging in tone from broad humour to pathos, are introduced by the island state’s retired, rumbustuous Chief of Police, Emmanuel "Fish-head" De Freitas. Nanton's live stage reading includes visual responses by the Vincentian artist Caroline "bops" Sardine, and a short film, Shades, by the South African filmmaker Akin Omotosho.

Island Voices has previously been performed in Barbados, Jamaica, St. Vincent, and at the 2007 Miami International Book Fair.

Moyenne

Moyenne is a Caribbean jazz group, led by Chantal Esdelle, a graduate of Berklee College of Music and a MA student at York University. This pianist, composer, and arranger is joined by co-founder of the group Kevin Sobers on steel pans, Douglas Redon on bass, and Junior Noel on percussion. Together they create and perform original music that reflects their rich Caribbean heritage and their exploration of African-American jazz.

Moyenne has performed at the Havana International Jazz Festival, the Grenada Spice Jazz Festival, Pan Royale (now referred to as the Trinidad and Tobago Steel Pan and Jazz Festival), and throughout the Caribbean.

You can hear Moyenne’s music at www.myspace.com/chantalesdelle

The evening's performance starts at 8.00 pm. Admission is free and all are invited.

Wendell McShine & The Cloth

2009-02-17T11:22:00.008-04:00

Designer Robert Young of The Cloth will open a temporary retail shop for the 2009 Carnival season at Alice Yard, featuring locally designed and made clothing. Mexico-based Trinidadian artist Wendell McShine will participate in the launch of The Cloth Here, with a performance piece at Alice Yard on Wednesday 18 February, 2009, from 5.00 pm. McShine will paint the Alice Yard exhibition space housing pieces from The Cloth's 2009 collection. For more information, contact Robert Young at 721-7616.

Marlon Darbeau's En Route in Draconian Switch

2009-01-10T17:03:00.001-04:00

En Route ... Of Bridges and Barriers, the installation project by Marlon Darbeau that ran at Alice Yard from 10 to 13 December, 2008, is featured in the latest issue of Draconian Switch, an emag produced by a group of Trinidadian artists and writers. Download the current issue (and back issues from the archive) here.

Under de Box

2008-12-18T11:30:00.003-04:00

20 December, 2008, 7.00 pm, at Alice Yard

Under de Box, an fundraising exhibition showcasing the work of Alixzandar Morle (aMorle) and Jabari Cook (JB), opens at Alice Yard on Saturday 20 December, 2008, at 7.00 pm, and continues until Tuesday 23 December (3.00 to 8.00 pm daily).

"Being an artist in Trinidad and Tobago is a struggle. It's almost as if we are literally placed under a box," says 20-year-old Morle. The show's title is a reference to the ensnaring of animals such as wild rabbits by trapping them under a box. What happens under the box? The exhibition, says Morle, will showcase what the artist creates while he himself is "under de box". The works, inspired by urban street art, are done chiefly on scrap materials such as plywood, galvanise, and cardboard. "No one can hear, see or smell us! We are under de box! But it's about time we lift up dem flaps and climb out!"

Alixzandar Morle is a first-year student at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia. He work has been featured in shows at Euphoria and Queen's Royal College and in campaigns for the Heroes Foundation. Jabari Cook is a graphic artist.

For more information, call 739-4386.

A conversation with Brendan Tang

2008-12-12T13:36:00.000-04:00

19 December, 2008, 7.30 pm, at Alice Yard

Manga Ormolu version 2.0-f (14.75" high), by Brendan Tang

Brendan Tang was born in Ireland of Trinidadian parents, and is a naturalized citizen of Canada. His work engages with popular/contemporary culture and post-modern philosophy, employing humour, decorative opulence, and craftsmanship as modes of communication. He has exhibited in juried and invitational shows across Canada and the United States. He currently resides in Kamloops, British Columbia.

On Friday 19 December, 2008, at 7.30 pm, Tang will give an artist's talk at Alice Yard, discussing his career and working process, and his current engagement with his Trinidadian roots.

For more information on Tang and his work, visit his website:

http://www.brendantang.com

Manga Ormolu version 2.0-i (13 x 9.5"), by Brendan Tang

Shooting the Messenger (12 x 8"), by Brendan Tang

En Route, by Marlon Darbeau

2008-11-28T13:37:00.002-04:00

10 December, 2008, from 7.00 pm, at Alice Yard

En Route ... Of Bridges and Barriers, an installation project by Marlon Darbeau, opens at Alice Yard on Wednesday 10 December, 2008, at 7.00 pm, and continues until Saturday 13 December (3.00 to 7.00 pm daily)

The project "explores the comfort and the coziness of escapism, and the inherent and inescapable value of denial" in contemporary Trinidad and Tobago.

For more information on Darbeau and his work, visit his blog:

http://marlondarbeau.blogspot.com

Neila Ebanks - performance and discussion

2008-10-14T09:52:00.018-04:00

Alice Yard this Friday October 17th at 7.30 pm

Jamaican dancer, choreographer and teacher Neila Ebanks will be visiting Trinidad this week to host workshops in both Trinidad and Tobago, perform with the Continuum Dance Project directed by Sonja Dumas, and present her own work at Alice Yard.

The University of Trinidad & Tobago (UTT)-hosted workshop took place on the weekend - October 11 and 12 - at the Caribbean School of Dancing in Port of Spain.
Ms. Ebanks who directs her own dance company - eNKompan.E - is currently an instructor in the School of Dance at the Edna Manley School of the visual & Performing Arts and will be teaching work from her repertoire over a two-day period. On Friday, October 17 she will showcase her work at Alice Yard.

This will be followed by a post-performance discussion facilitated by local choreographer Sonja Dumas. Ms. Ebanks completes her tour of the country with a workshop in Tobago on Saturday October 18th at the Dance Studio on Bacolet Street.

"Water and Me"

2008-09-25T02:38:00.017-04:00

Saturday 27th September at 7.00 pm

Ugochukwu Bright Eke and Alice Yard open new project at the YMCA this Saturday

In culminating his Commonwealth Foundation Residency programme at Alice Yard, Nigerian artist "Ugochukwu Bright Eke" will present a series of installations entitled "Water and Me".
Ugochukwu developed these works-in-progress whilst in Trinidad as a continuation of his interest in the negotiations / interrelationships between man and the environment, and will continue these investigations, through these works, as they travel around the world.
The showing of these works will also integrate the choreography of Sonja Dumas's "Continuum Dance Project."

Ugochukwu Bright Eke is Alice Yard's first international artist-in-residence. He is a winner of the Commonwealth Foundation’s Arts and Craft Award for 2007, and has chosen to use his award grant to visit and work in Trinidad.

Venue: YMCA , Benbow Road (off Wrightson Rd) , Port-of-Spain.

Saturday 27th September at 7.00pm

'The Universal Human Experience'

2008-09-23T13:17:00.017-04:00

Kishan Munroe of Nassau will speak about his latest project:

"The Universal Human Experience"

THURSDAY 25th SEPTEMBER AT 7.30 PM

Paramount to Munroe's project is the investigation of peoples on opposing sides of various contemporary conflicts which have historically changed modern regional and global socio-cultural interaction. The range of the dialogue shall span a myriad of disputes; by way of example: the Holocaust to the Iraqi war to Haitian/Bahamian relations; the white/black racial divide; gang rivalry; controversial Australian Immigration practices; the war against Terrorism; and the Rwandan Civil War.

Kishan Munroe was born in Nassau Bahamas in 1980. He is the product of a social, cultural and historic continuum of artists in a region where the tradition of art-making is expressed through its many layers of varied and complex histories. In the fall of 1998 Munroe embarked upon his studies at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia. He double majored in Painting and Visual effects and completed his undergraduate work with honors in 2003. He went on to pursue graduate work at his alma mater on a graduate fellowship and concluded his studies in Painting in 2005. Munroe's work has been exhibited both in the Caribbean and the United States and is included in many public and private collections. He is the recipient of numerous awards and accolades including: grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Governor's Choice Award (Bahamas), The Nancie Mattice International Award, and The Combined Merit Fellowship at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Kishan Munroe is based in Nassau

Animae Caribe introduces MAX HATTLER

2008-09-23T00:35:00.024-04:00

This Tuesday 23rd September at 7.30pm.

Animae Caribe introduces to Alice Yard, German born, London based media artist / animator Max Hattler, as part of the Animation and New Media - Vjaying UK session & Visual Lime.

MAX HATTLER has performed live visuals across Europe & the US, including Tate Britain, the ICA and the Animation Show. His abstract political short film "Collision" won several prizes, including the LUX Award for Best Experimental Film. Dazed and Confused, a pop-culture zine published in the United Kingdom, described him as one of “three of the world’s most exciting young animators”, next to PES and Model Robot. While his films tend to be without dialogue, they explore the relationship between sound, music & the moving image.

see interview here

A conversation with Ugochukwu Bright Eke

2008-08-08T15:21:00.002-04:00

11 August, 2008, from 7.30 pm, at Alice Yard

Alice Yard presents its first international artist-in-residence: Ugochukwu Bright Eke from Nigeria. He is a winner of the Commonwealth Foundation’s Arts and Craft Award for 2007, and has chosen to use his award grant to visit and work in Trinidad.

On Monday 11 August, 2008, at 7.30 pm, Eke will discuss his process for developing works and programmes stimulated by his experiences in Trinidad and Tobago. Merging conversation and installation, the evening's event will draw on and explain his interests in the environment, community, and performance.

For more information on Eke and his work, visit his blog:

http://u-bright.blogspot.com/

"All in a night at Alice Yard"

2008-05-06T16:07:00.000-04:00

By Mariel Brown

First published in Caribbean Beat, May/June 2008

It’s Friday night in Port of Spain. No doubt, as on any Friday night in any city around the world, people are getting ready to go out, to any one or combination of an assortment of bars, clubs, lounges and rum shops. I’m heading to Alice Yard for “Conversations in the Yard.” A place that doesn’t quite fit any of the aforementioned categories, in essence, Alice Yard is really no more than its name implies: a yard, a paved area in the back of an old house on Roberts Street, in Woodbrook, an old-fashioned, middle-class suburb of the city. And yet it’s become a regular Friday-night spot for a certain small crowd.

“Conversations in the Yard” is a weekly event organised by Sheldon Holder, singer-songwriter from 12 the Band, in which someone with a specific area of interest or expertise leads a conversation. Sometimes musical groups perform or artists show their work; some weeks there’s a guest DJ playing his or her favourite tunes—amateurs only: it seems the criterion for spinning at the yard is a love for all kinds of music, and you’re as likely to hear Billie Holiday as you are to hear the Renegades steel orchestra’s rendition of Pan in A Minor. Some nights there’s just a handful of people liming, and other nights a hundred people will squeeze into the tiny space. Everything is open to the public, and there’s no cover charge.

It’s 9.30 pm, and despite the fact that every e-mail flier says come for 9, things tend not to get started there much before 10. So I don my T-shirt and flip-flops (a dress code would be anathema to the place) and head down to “the yard” (as it’s affectionately called).

Tonight two designers are launching lines of T-shirts, a local rap group is performing, an artist is sprawled on sheets of cardboard on the ground, and another artist has installed a bay-leaf-strewn “chicken coop” in one of the outbuildings.

Graphic artist Nigel Des Vignes has a full pot of corn soup bubbling away on a gas ring on the ground. He says he’s recreating Charlotte Street—a downtown street where the roadway doubles as a vegetable market—so there are hands of green figs, limes and ground provisions strewn about the place. In between, Des Vignes displays his T-shirts in cut lengths of bamboo and pinned to a clothesline. Architect Terrence Smith has rolled his line of T-shirts (which he calls “Old”) into discarded beer cases. People drift between the installations, trying not to tread on Michelle Isava, who’s scribbling abstract doodles on her cardboard mattress. They’re obviously discomfited by her—a beautiful, pale-skinned vagrant who seems oblivious to everyone around. There are drinks for sale at an ad-hoc bar, and stewed chicken with red beans and rice. A guest DJ is playing roots reggae.

It’s a strange, interesting, fragmented sort of night. Looking around at everyone doing their own thing, it’s hard to tell who’s in charge here. And in a way, this combination of creative exploration and quiet anarchy is what the creators of the space would want most.

*

Alice Yard came into being in September 2006, during “Galvanise,” a six-week-long programme of contemporary art and performance activities set in various traditional and non-traditional venues around Port of Spain. Sean Leonard, an architect and custodian of the property, says he had been wanting to create a space “where things could be made.” At the time, 12 the Band was in need of a rehearsal space, and artist Jaime Lee Loy was desperate to find an exhibition site for her “Galvanise” installation. “It would give me the opportunity to play,” explains Leonard, “and to enter into live investigations of the potential of the urban yard space.”

The yard at 80 Roberts Street is familiar territory to Leonard, who spent much of his childhood playing with his siblings and the neighbourhood children in what was then his great-grandmother Alice’s backyard. Leonard says Alice is a kind of mythical figure to him: “She was always feeding everybody: panmen, people in the street. The composition in the house was always changing. She had a soft but respectful and powerful presence.”

In fact, when Leonard first took Sheldon Holder to see the property, Holder says he felt a great energy coming from the place.

“It’s a special yard to me,” says Leonard. “Generations of my family have spent time there. My parents had their wedding reception there; my mum’s wedding dress was made there; my first night-mas [Carnival] band started there. It’s always been like that: very active, creative. Full of tension.”

For Holder, the offer of a room, however modest, was opportune. “When Sean brought me to the place at first,” says Holder, “it was a 10-by-13-foot storeroom, literally, and I was like, ‘I wonder if this will really work, boy.’ I was like, ‘Man, if we getting we own place, no matter the size, we’ll make it cut.’”

So 12 took over the storeroom and made it into a soundproof bandroom, Jaime Lee Loy held her exhibition and Alice Yard, the contemporary art and music space, was born.

In September 2007, in collaboration with artist Christopher Cozier and writer Nicholas Laughlin, Leonard opened “The Alice Yard Space,” an exhibition area in the yard. It’s a modest space, rather like a large box with a glass front and halogen lights, which, since the closure of the CCA7 gallery in mid-2007, has been providing a venue for experimental art practice.

“The break-up of CCA7 was depressing,” says Laughlin, “and the commercial art scene is depressing. It all seemed like dead ends. But Alice Yard feels like a kind of opening up instead of closing down.

“I also feel there’s a kind selflessness about Sean and the way he’s going about the thing: the sense of modest improvisation, the emphasis on conversation and collaboration, on quiet, effective work rather than grand pronouncements. There’s also the hopefulness of Alice Yard, of the whole venture.”

Holder says Alice Yard is “an attempt to serve people from on the ground. It really is meant to evolve into a sort of community centre—a resource for everything creative.”

Fundamentally, the yard exists to serve artists and musicians. Whilst the Friday-night lime might be a cool scene and attract an interesting hodgepodge of onlookers and limers, there’s a kind of nonchalance that suggests this really isn’t about the consumer. In fact, Sheldon Holder gets antsy if he thinks there are too many people there. He’ll opt, defiantly, not to send out an e-mail shot or not to organise a performance or a “conversation” the next week, so that the vibe at the yard can realign itself. Holder’s attitude is quite extraordinary when you consider the prevailing night-spot culture, where the public relations machines work to bring in the clientele. The yard’s lack of pretence and marketing strategy is refreshing.

*

Spotrushaz, a local rap group, is explaining to an audience member why they rap with American accents. Some people listen intently to the discussion, others carry on their own conversations, and Nigel Des Vignes offers me a cup of his “best” corn soup and encourages people to pick the limes up off the ground and take them home: “Like allyuh don’t know how expensive limes are these days!” It’s all in a night at Alice Yard.

Blur bs, by Steve Ouditt

2008-02-25T23:27:00.002-04:00

29 February, 2008, 7.30 to 10.30 pm, in the Alice Yard Space

Installation view of Blur bs, from The Abjection Collection, an artistic research PhD by Steve Ouditt

Over the course of 2008, on a bi-monthly schedule, Steve Ouditt will exhibit six works from his current artistic research PhD, The Abjection Collection. All six exhibitions will be installed at Alice Yard on the last Friday of the month, with the first exhibition on 29 February.

On the Friday of each exhibition, Ouditt will read excerpts from his PhD thesis, and the installed work will remain as part of Alice Yard's regular “Conversations in de Yard” Friday series.

The five subsequent exhibitions are scheduled for 25 April, 27 June, 29 August, 31 October, and 19 December. These will be announced closer to the scheduled dates.

Ouditt's artistic research PhD, The Abjection Collection, is being done through the Cultural Studies Programme of the Department of Liberal Arts, Faculty of Humanities and Education, University of the West Indies, St Augustine.

s.ouditt@tstt.net.tt

Preserving the Future: A conversation about architecture, heritage, and the Boissiere House

2008-02-19T17:30:00.003-04:00

All are invited to this informal event to talk and learn about the historic Boissiere House (currently threatened), Trinidad's architectural heritage, and the importance of preservation.

Alice Yard will host a variety of multimedia installations with images and stories of this and other historic Port of Spain buildings, as well as a "recording booth" where you can record your own memories of a rapidly changing city, to preserve them for the future. There will also be an open conversation about the social value of preserving all aspects of our cultural heritage; plus information about the campaign to preserve the Boissiere House.

Do you have questions or ideas? Want to volunteer to help the Boissiere House campaign? Are you simply concerned about the ways our city and country are changing before our eyes, and what we are losing? Come and join in the conversation.

Alice Yard, 80 Roberts Street, Woodbrook, Port of Spain
Friday 22 February, 2008, at 8 p.m.

More details about this event soon.

www.saveboissierehouse.org

Tonight in the Alice Yard Space: Dream House, by Elspeth Duncan

2008-02-15T14:28:00.000-04:00

As part of the Love Is Green event tonight at Alice Yard, artist Elspeth Duncan will show an interactive artwork called Dream House in the Alice Yard Space gallery.

Love Is Green runs from 8 to 11 pm on Friday 15 February, 2008, at Alice Yard, 80 Roberts Street, Woodbrook, Port of Spain. All are invited.

Beyond the Alice Yard Space: La Fantasie

2008-01-22T13:23:00.000-04:00

La Fantasie is a collaborative project by three artists--a site-specific installation at 41-43 Norfolk Street, Belmont, Port of Spain. It opens at 4 p.m. on Friday 25 January, and runs for three days. Click the image above for more information.

Working on 200 Drawings

2007-12-13T19:58:00.000-04:00

Jaime Lee Loy and Nikolai Noel working on 200 Drawings.

4: 200 Drawings, by Jaime Lee Loy and Nikolai Noel

2007-12-10T00:00:00.000-04:00

14 December, 2007, at 9.00 pm, in the Alice Yard Space

Since late 2006, the young artists Marlon Griffith, Jaime Lee Loy, and Nikolai Noel have been engaged in open-ended collaboration and conversation with each other. In 2008, the trio will present several collaborative projects. During Griffith's absence from Trinidad (on a residency in Jamaica), Lee Loy and Noel will co-operate on a performative project at Alice Yard, called 200 Drawings.

"The project is a kind of exercise in looking, with 'gender' underpinnings--a level of engagement and observation without direct interaction. This is apart from the obvious exercise in concentration, imagination, and execution involved in the production of the drawings. J and I sit across the room from each other and make drawings, and we hope to amass 200 at the end. We give ourselves limitations with regard to size of paper, and that the drawings be executed in the presence of the other person involved. We work in the space where the drawings will be displayed."

--Nikolai Noel

From Monday 10 December, Lee Loy and Noel will spend several hours each day drawing each other in the gallery space at Alice Yard. On the night of Friday 14, the finished drawings will be displayed in the Alice Yard Space even as the two artists continue to draw under the gaze of their audience.

Bios:

Jaime Lee Loy has been experimenting with video for the past five years. Her paintings have also appeared in over a dozen exhibitions. She has been artist in residence in Trinidad (CCA) and the USA (Vermont Studio Centre). Her writing and art explore the nuances of the female psyche and interrogate the social frameworks that negatively impact that psyche. A young single mother, she produced the documentary Protest based on young mothers in Trinidad, as well as the videos Madam and Unease. She is currently producing a film based on Bury Your Mother, a short story she wrote for the forthcoming Trinidad Noir anthology. She is an honours graduate in literature and visual arts of the University of the West Indies, St Augustine.

Nikolai Noel grew up in the east Port of Spain district of Belmont and attended the John Donaldson Technical Institute before entering 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 with solo shows in 2002 and 2007. He says: "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."

The trematode--a six-legged frog--has been adopted as a badge or logo for their collective by Marlon Griffith, Jaime Lee Loy, and Nikolai Noel.

Waiting

2007-11-24T19:57:00.000-04:00

Dave Williams performing Waiting, 23 November, 2007.

3: Waiting, by Dave Williams

2007-11-20T18:08:00.000-04:00

23 November, 2007, at 9.30 pm, in the Alice Yard Space

"The size and shape of the space around us figures the shape of what we feel we need to get out of and how far away from it we think we need to run. The shape of the space around us, therefore, prescribes not only what we move like but what we form ourselves into in order to reside in, or escape it."

-- Dave Williams

Bio: Dave Williams is a Trinidad-based performance artist and choreographer who uses elements of dance to re-present archetypes and stereotypes of our circumstance. In an attempt to manipulate the way we perceive, reference, and interpret our responses and actions, he is now exploring media beyond the stage.

At the Proverb opening

2007-10-22T12:12:00.000-04:00

At the opening of Proverb, a video work by Mario Lewis; photo by Georgia Popplewell. More photos from the 19 October event here.

2: Proverb, by Mario Lewis

2007-10-17T11:11:00.000-04:00

19 October to 9 November, 2007, in the Alice Yard Space

Still from Proverb (2005), a video work

In Proverb ... Mario Lewis presents an installation meditating on the diasporan experience, commenting on "migration, history and belonging", and what he calls a "hybrid film" explores "the passing of time, estrangement, [and] alienation as a poetic construct"....

Leading on from what seems to have begun as an exploration of the UK which was perhaps also a search for his own place within the scheme of things, Lewis has created a new context that selectively combines the fruits of his research, thoughts and encounters from two different times and places in his life.... The video is a visceral representation of alienation, at the same time playing with the medium of the moving image.

-- Asako Yokoya

(Proverb was first shown at the 198 Gallery in London from 21 January to 4 March, 2005.)

Bio: Mario Lewis studied at the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana and Goldsmiths College in London. He has participated in numerous international exhibitions, including the Santo Domingo and Dakar Biennials (2003 and 2002), and Latitudes (Paris, 2004). His solo shows include Blind Spot (2002), How Yuh Like Meh Now (2003), and Proverb (2005). He returned to Trinidad in 2005 with the aim of establishing a foundation for research and development of visual arts in the Caribbean. He spearheaded the Galvanize programme that ran in September and October 2006.

Proverb opens on Friday 19 October, 2007, at 7.30 pm, in the Alice Yard Space. Mario Lewis will engage in a conversation about contemporary art in Trinidad and the legacy of Galvanize 2006 with artist Adam Williams and architect Sean Leonard. All are invited.