Thoughts of a minibus traveller

 (The Moving Circle of Artists' work is presented in the 2024 Indigenous Heritage Exhibition at Castellani House until 30 September, 2024. ) There was no print catalogue available. The QR code image was around, but I did not have the technology to use the QR code even with assistance of the attendants. I hope the organisers will put labels on the work items for viewers who cannot access the QR code. I apologise to the artists whose work I reference without the proper attributions Going into the unknown Place hot and I feeling a lil jumpy despite the yoga routine earlier in the day. Some unexpected challenges which pile up and then come in to chill out in the gallery and find that I have to do guess work on the art and so. Switch my mind, thinking yeah, go into the unknown.  NO titles to guide you.  Friends on social media had shared pictures of some of the most striking pieces so there is a familiarity in a way. And a helpful attendant shows the PDF on his phone to check prices

 ( Echoes of Resilience by the Division of Creative Arts, Faculty of Education and Humanities, UG continues at Castellani House until 19th August, 2024. I apologise to the artists whose work appear in photos here without the credit to them by name )  Masculine "All dem man wan look like woman.. " the bus driver says near Bourda Market as a man with long locks on a motorbike cut across him. The bus driver sounded angry,  'He got a  <d.,.k>;' ... Proud man that he was, made in God's image. he had just told a woman passenger that she look 'nice wid she big belly' .. the woman had laughed. Another man in God's image , riding a bicycle, with his crutch across the handlebar had stopped to tell a woman joining another minibus that 'you looking beautiful today' and so on.. and being very close to the bus window so I was hearing, he could have been talking to me too.  So I told him 'uncle you looking beautiful too' and some passengers laug

Thanks Esther for the photo Rivers  "Mr Kissoon, you arite..." the boat captain asks me as I decide to be one with the river and not be afraid of it. I say yeah man.. I more concerned that he is arite because if the captain is not arite then we will not be arite no matter how much my soul and the river are intertwined. Leap year and after years of working from the comfort of home , where commuting is clicking on keys in house clothes.. Universe says get  off your flattened ... and get on the rivers to go to work. And so I have to say yes to the fear, and yes to the work and I go on the rivers in the first months of the leap year.  Dressed to protect from water spray but knowing really that  should the water embrace me fully there will be no protection except to swim.. which I can't do. But respecting the river seems to ease the discomfort of not being able to swim in the river. And to enjoy the river, the smooth and the rough, the bamboo and other plants on the banks.. an

NO photography allowed so blog graphic generated by AI The Moving Circle of Artists  The young guard stood in the doorway of the hut and said 'the gate open'. His hands in his pocket and leaning on the post. I asked him if the gun too heavy (I see it on the desk in the hut) and he laughs. I don't ask him if he has seen the exhibition. Castellani House grounds are cooler than the minibus which was stuck in traffic and which had two women with their children trying to sit away from the sun. Nice benches, but benabs which don't have seats in them. Not sure if the benabs without seats and the benches in the sun are some kind of art installation too. The booklet on the desk inside presents the Moving Circle of Artists. A mix of all genders and ages, experiences, and of people who produce art in different forms.  There is a nice mix of painted wood, sculpture, paintings on the wall. The paintings of hinterland landscapes, animals, and some human figures. There is an installat

Extract from installation by Yedidiyah Gordon Mirrors Cheerful security guard holding the large gun opens the gate and says yes yes go through when I say I am going to gallery. The heat is on , I am feeling fuzzy as two nights of bad sleep due to the heat and so. Coming to the exhibition as I think I need to do things I planned since sleeping in the heat doesn't make sense even with a fan. Castellani House is cool inside. I go upstairs and see bright colours of the flowers on the wall where I had first seen Bernadette Persaud's Birth of  Lotus when I had visited the gallery the first time.  I see myself in the jigsaw mirror and think right.. your face looking tired. Walk around the pieces, looking though I feel like I am not looking. Bright colours of musical instruments. Fashion, jewellery.  I am not sure why I am not drawn to the bright colours and the jewellery. The mind. See the big mirror. Some people posted on Facebook with selfies. I like the reflections of Yedididyah Go

   Menstruation The smell is strong, all over. Smell which I associate with some menstruating women. The smell comes through the mask. There are no women near me. I had run through the rain, so breathing is a bit heavy. Is it the petrichor? Place was hot before. Is the earth menstruating? Atashscia Bovell's work is about womanhood. For one wild moment I wonder if the installation includes some kind of device to produce the scent. The smell though, does not come  here. One of the pieces features the padding from the menstrual pads, red blood and screws. The softness contrasting with the pain. I have witnessed, helplessly, the pain. And the shaming. Navratra is coming up , worship of the divine Mother while many people will mutter about 'unclean' women. Period poverty and the shaming of menstruating women are forms of gender based violence.  There is no imposition of motherhood as the essence of womanhood here. There are representations of vaginas.  Navratra on my mind as I l

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

(Image butchered from the invitation image shared around for the opening ceremonies) President Granger smiles down benignly from the large 3 dimensional piece. The raised part is composed of screws. It is like sculpture and it must have taken a lot of time for the artist Shimuel Jones to do.   The piece is called 'Chronicles of HE Granger'. The screws are arranged to create the face of the President. The background has newspaper on it. By the time I come to see it, I had already seen the paintings of President Granger, and former Presidents Burnham and Chung. I was a little nervous - another artist had a portrait of President Granger prominently recently in another exhibition.  I was wondering if the artist were trying a thing thinking of party paramountcy and loyalty to the supreme leader and so on. No artist in the exhibition had bothered with the other Presidents of the past. I remember one artist in another painting with a face which looked very much like former presid

"Keep it, keep it.." Josette Norris said . She had given me a copy of the poem '79' by Shake (pronounced Shak-ie) Keane. Shake Kean was a trumpet player and made a name for himself in Europe and North America. The poem is about the 1979 eruption of the St Vincent Soufriere volcano. It refers to 'rancid hope and Guyana rice'. I don't know if any other Caribbean poets have written about Guyana in their poems. I have never been to any event in Guyana where an artist gave me a poem written by a jazz musician. Josette Norris's tribute to Shake includes a broken 78 record - Fire Fire. She says that it might have been one of her grandmother's collection of 78 records which the children used as frisbees. There are three paintings featuring lizards. 'Lizards are beautiful' she says. I agree. There is an interesting range of work. She uses techniques to give some 3 dimensional effects.  There are other beautiful paintings of flowers,

The nude woman looks like she is running away from the photographer in one image - on a bridge which is ruined  , so escape as so many women have found to their detriment in Guyana.  The anonymity a brutal reminder of the judgement passed on women .. you too fat, you too ugly, you too dark, you too tall, you too hairy.. . In another other print at the end of my walk around the island of beautiful photographs on black cloth , the two women at the bottom of the stairway to heaven are positioned in ways that remind me of the pictures of ship holds and the position of bodies imprisoned as slaves. This is perhaps Guyanese culture where heterosexuality and 'natural attraction to females' involves subjugation and domination, and where objectification is constantly reinforced, and where men with 'unnatural attractions to women' remain silent when those use 'natural attraction' to defend violence against women. Visions 2016 is a curated exhibition of photographs

Part of Lotus in the time of the Arab Spring taken from the catalogue The woman working in the gallery said she likes the military pictures because she used to be in the military. Another woman said she would not go to the exhibition because the work has too much energy and angst which she thinks is reflective of the artist's life. Some people think the work is beautiful and wonder why the little red spots of blood and so on are on the beautiful paintings of the rainforest. There is an exhibition of selected works of Bernadette Persaud at the National Gallery - " As New and As Old " . My favourite pieces of art are Birth of  Lotus and the Lotus in July.. what the hell do I know about art.. nothing really except that I remember walking into Castellani House way back in 1994 or 1995 to a Guyana which was supposed to be full of Cheddi Jagan and promise and hope and Birth of a Lotus was positioned at the top of the staircase in Burnham's house - the Residence.  

"Tell me what you think the artist is trying to say" Inmaculada had asked me. She and I were looking at a painting, and I could not think of any opening lines.. but she did. Inmaculada..  giving me the look with the eyes and the half smile which says that it would be nice if I  answer or maybe there would be no more conversations.. So I did my spiel.. talking about the colours , and the lines and  so on which reflect confusion and sadness and .. and she then said .. "Ah..  you have just told me about you.. , not about the artist" Me and the Surrealists Inmaculada's challenging smile is in my head when I decide to go and take a look at the surrealist paintings by my Facebook friend  Surrealist and Abstract drawings by Dominique Hunter . I have this image of bearded white men with wild eyes and manic tempers who paint up these bizarre images with cut open bodies and so on.. the one time I saw Ms Hunter - she struck me as the kind of girl who would do well a