Regional artists tell stories in Barbados
By George Alleyne
Societies turn to the creative minds
within their midst to colorfully document
incidents within the passage of time
that altogether make up the history of
communities, so it was no wonder that
a forum grouping Caribbean artists was
chockful of stories.
Regional illustrators along with those
from Motherland Africa and the Diaspora
came together in the Courtney Blackman
Grand Salle of the Barbados Central Bank
for the 9th Annual Caribbean Fine Art
Fair (CAFA) over three days from March
6 to 8.
Within that makeshift gallery people
of the region and wider afield displayed
their creations on canvas and sculpture
that told us about ourselves, what we go
through daily.
Among the notable illustrations of Caribbean
living is the arresting portrayal of
suffering, which the region’s people are
subjected following the storms that sweep
across these small states every year.
There is an uncontrolled exposure, a
sense of bareness that overcomes a person
when all earthly possessions are violently
ripped away, taken in a suddenness that
moves the hapless loser to gasp, then
weep openly and unashamedly in naked
revelation.
Such is the experience, even repeated,
of some Caribbean residents who endure
six months every year of storms and
threats of storms.
When these tightly wound-up powerful
cyclones hit land in the form of hurricanes
or tropical storms, they tear apart flimsy
Caribbean dwellings and gusts bring
water surges to wash away as debris fragments
of houses and all material things
therein leaving former occupants feeling
uncovered and in despair.
This is the story of ‘Erika’ a painting by
Aaron Hamilton.
The artist’s depiction of this familiar
Aaron Hamilton with “Erika.” Naked anguish. Photo by George Alleyne
Caribbean L 50 ife, March 22–28, 2019 BQ
Caribbean phenomenon should ring home
true to anyone who lived through one of
those storms.
“I am trying to capture the emotions of
individuals. How they felt after that storm.
How you can go to sleep one night and
when you wake up in the morning you’re
totally naked. Everything washed away.
You feel so vulnerable,” explained Hamilton,
a Dominica native, “… the vulnerability
of human beings in meeting a disaster.”
Described as the most devastating act of
weather to hit the island since Hurricane
David of 1979, Tropical Storm Erika of
2015 brought winds and heavy rainfall to
Dominica.
Of course, Maria of 2017 has since
eclipsed Erika’s devastation.
The Erika of Hamilton’s painting shows
a typically ample Caribbean woman, the
giver of life, naked in a mournful state
amidst the rain as the home and its contents,
that combined make up her clothes,
are washed away.
“My pieces reflect some of the issues
that we have after a tropical storm,” said
Hamilton, who is one of some 22 artists
and sculptors whose work was on display.
Then there was Barbadian Junior Leroy
Parris who presented contrasting creations.
Some are for the demanding eye and
spirit of the art connoisseur, and others
simple but appealing — not least because
they were of a young female half-clothed
subject.
“Most of the paintings that you see in
here I have done some of them in classical
style and some that I have collected are
done in contemporary style,” he stated in
a handout.
Dominican Earl Etienne mixed ‘social
realism with cultural, economic and social
aspects of life.’
He focussed on some of the Caribbean
first people, the Kallinagos, and some of
the people who were brought for their
labour, the Twi mostly of what is now called
Ghana.
“They depicted themselves like stick figures.
You could find this in Guadeloupe in
rock carvings, or petroglyphs,” he said of
the Kallinagos, whom he displayed in sticklike
form and what he said was the way
Europeans saw them.
Dominican artist, Earl Etienne with a montage of Caribbean fi rst people
and some of those who came. Photo by George Alleyne