Egypt, the sea and the unknown at the E.R Burrowes School of Art Exhibition

Unnamed piece by Alyce Cameron

(The Instructors, Lecturers and Tutors of  E.R. Burrowes School of Art organised an Exhibition of Art Works which runs until 8 July, 2022. This blog is not a review )

The sun is hot, skies are blue in the north and the east. Sounds of thunder far away.

Bus man says.. "rain falling somewhere" watching dark clouds in the south and the west contrasting with the clear blue skies over us . 

Nice contrasting colours to get my head ready for the art exhibition at Burrowes.  

I have not been to any art thing in real life since Covid and the 2020 elections. 

Covid stopped some exhibitions but inspired a lot of virtual art events around the world.

The PPP have also closed down Castellani House effectively as nothing has happened there , virtually or in real life since they resumed power. Some groups have hosted their own events.

Egypt 

I walk into a room to look for the exhibition and a man in a coat that used to be white guides me to the exhibition room. 

"As we are here.. let me show you my pieces"

Falcon set Vandyke David

Vandyke David teaches ceramics at Burrowes. 

We talk about the three piece ceramics with the papier-mâchér falcon handles. I have never seen clay and paper together. He explains "I am inspired by the ancient Egyptian art".  

His "Egyptian Pot" , also on display,  had won a first prize in the 2017 Guyana Visual Arts Competition and Exhibition. The handles of the pot have bird representations.

My memory is fuzzy now, I know there is an Egyptian god represented with a falcon head. I come home to look for it - Khonsu (also Khons Khensu, or Khuns).  

"I can work in different materials" he says. He has a wooden sculpture on display too.

He shows me photos of  some of his other work - Dobby and Cyclops. "We can take a look when you are done at the structure for Dobby"

There is a piece on the wall by Alyce Cameron. 

There is no name with it. I liked the mixed media thing. Wood, metal, coin.  'You can interpret it as you please" Vandyke tells me.

I imagine that it is something about the 'cost' to produce art vs the cost of reward as the coin near the easel is smaller than the coin near the materials. Or maybe not.

Mixed media

The black/coolie madness erupted again in Guyana in the week of the exhibition. I have no idea why I am drawn to mixed media today.  Seeking cliches maybe of  'diversity' and 'mixing' or of being together without mixing. 

The artists using a variety of things to create work. Guyana maintaining divisions to not create anything.

40 years ago, first form. The assignment was a collage. I did a house with fence and garden and drive way. Lots of Evo stick and I went around the house to find things to make things for the house on paper .. pointer and brown cloth for the fence, plastic for the glass of the windows, sand for the drive way, cotton wool for clouds grass and palm leaves  for yard and other things which could Evo stick could keep down. 

The thing looked lopsided and untidy. It got top marks , more marks than the beautiful brilliant neat quilted house - cotton wool and cloth and a piece of sacking.

The Art teacher was a quiet woman, intimidating to 11 year old me. She put the collage on the art room window. I wondered why it remained there for a couple of years. I realised afterwards that the marks were for the diversity of materials used. 'neatness' was not necessary.  My one and only exhibit - in mixed media.

RISE: Respect, Inclusion, Strength and Equality by Alyce Cameron

 

And another mixed media piece, RISE - leather, metal, coconut shells.. thinking of Phillip Moore as I watch it. I don't understand the piece really but thinking of the dreaming of RISE and the black/coolie/keeping down that goes on in Guyana, part of the national thing like Kaieteur Falls.

Women rising

There are depictions of women in the exhibition - .. dreams, woman crying, woman rising, mother and child.  As I type this, a  mother is screaming at her children including a toddler, one of the mother and child things not depicted in art and sculpture. 

The mother hugs her child after she beats him too , much like in the sculpture.

MOTHER by Robert Cummings (Card woven cotten yarn)

One artist Oliver Smith did a series based on conversations he had with women. An interesting idea but the display was a bit confusing as the pieces were separate and the labels did not seem to correspond - well maybe the fault is with me.  But the idea of conversations with women to stimulate the pieces rather than imagining what and how women must feel.

DANCE by Oliver Smith

One piece is in my mind. A woman with a tear. There is a naming. MARRIAGE.  Facebook allows me in after locking me out. There is a message from a married woman now separated. The man had come around to the house. She wrote about feeling nausea, pain in her body, a lot of pain.  

MARRIAGE has caused tears, health problems , destruction to many women, and probably a few men.

MARRIAGE by Nicole Bissoo

 

The feminine is exhibited in various forms. Other pieces on display show jaguars, birds, a horse. Women and animals. 

Where are the depictions of men, father and child, men liberating themselves? Will there ever be a space to represent a healthy masculinity in sculpture, card weaving, painting?

The sea 

 

SOLUTION by Nicole Bissoo

 

The sea is not far from Burrowes. "The sea is where I go to feel better" the artist writes near to SOLUTION. The sea which is the graveyard for those of our ancestors who did not survive the voyage here. The sea which could drown us all regardless of where our ancestors originated. 

The sea which is a place of healing. 

A long time ago a woman had asked me to do a recording of the sound of the sea. She needed it as she finished off some important work.

The woman and I broke connections when she told me that I reminded her of an abusive ex-boyfriend. 

The sea connects us though as it connects a lot of us who would rather not be connected.

The sea at high tide with nice breeze is a place to feel better. (Low tide is boring).  

There is another painting of a lotus lily. Memories of Bernadette Persaud's brilliant work.  

The artist has on the label "All the world's chaos is stripped away to reveal you, the strongest lily of them all.."

 

Extract from Lily by Dawn Isaacs

 

Strong lilies in Guyana connected by the sea  ..
 

 The unknown.. 

Vandyke keeps his promise.  We go to see the structure of Dobby (from Harry Potter). 

Vandyke had built Dobby in clay. He also built a cyclops head. Both of them were dissolved to make other ceramics.

Dobby structure built by Vandyke David

 He explains how the clay holds, and the structure of the metal and newspaper. 'You might as well take a picture of the sawdust as well.. " he said as he explained his plan to use sawdust to rebuild Dobby.

"Sawdust from different wood would give different colours" . There is labour involved in sifting the sawdust. 

He shows me the barrels where the clay is soaked, the sifters , the rectangular vessels where the clay is put to dry before kneading. 

His generosity as he explains the processing and shows the stages of ceramics is an unexpected part of the exhibition. A random generosity between strangers which is thankfully human in a crazy country.

The processing and the labour are the unknown elements of the pieces on display in the room at the front.

There is a faded red roofed house on a table. Vandyke says he thinks it is an unfinished work by Phillip Moore. Another unknown hovering around us.

Piece of incomplete work by Philip Moore

Chairs

Nicole Bissoo's painting of two chairs in her garden

The painting of the two empty chairs resonates with me. A long time I had taken a picture of two red wooden chairs near a lake in Canada. It seemed like the chairs also talked to each other if no one else was doing that. 

Talking to each other, listening to each other which we don't do often in this place.  

Some people come in. Another exhibitor is there. We talk about the 'meaning of the art' and whether the artist has to explain anything to the viewer.  

I am glad for the conversation with Vandyke David and the other artists.   

I also like not having explanations or having to find meaning in anything.