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FEATURING WORKS BY ASHRAPH EDDIE BOWEN SUSAN DAYAL JADE DRAKES JACKIE HINKSON HORACIO HOSPEDALES PAUL KAIN CHE LOVELACE JOSHUA LUE CHEE KONG MARTIN MOUTTET WENDY NANAN RICHARD MARK RAWLINS
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ASHRAPH These four pieces of photo transfer with red embroidery thread and felt stitched on watercolor paper – these art works are works in progress for LINE...... I’m using the line from the architecture in the landscape, from my walkabouts, to tell a story or to try to tell the story: Sugarcoating, whitewash, or just putting a plaster on a sore .......these buildings have a story on their own without me putting my story on them.
Charlotte Street, 2017 18”H x 29”W Mixed Media
Roberts Street, 2017 18”H x 29”W Mixed Media
Picton Street, 2017 18”H x 29”W Mixed Media
Frederick Street, 2017 18”H x 29”W Mixed Media
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EDDIE BOWEN A line is the continuation of a dot, a point, deliberately articulated to construct meaning and language, line is the visible extension of human abstracted thought.
Fashion Statement, 2017 72�H x 29�W Mixed Media on Paper
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SUSAN DAYAL This drawing is the result of clear intentions and stream of consciousness responses to miscalculations. I started by dividing the paper into 4 quadrants using the golden ratio (known as PHI = 1.6180339887…) of the length and breadth of the paper. I then drew a 1 inch grid emanating from the intersection of the 2 lines. My intention was to use the intersection as the focal point for 4 Fibonacci Spirals (formed by arcs of increasing radii following the Fibonacci sequence 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34…). During a break in concentration and confused by the grid, I positioned the focal point halfway down the length of the paper instead of at the golden ratio intersection point, thus losing the particular aesthetic I was after. The responses and solutions that followed have turned this drawing into more than just a mathematical exercise.
Regeneration, 2017 72”H x 29”W Graphite on Mixed Media Paper
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JADE DRAKES Map of sensations like a nerve map Looking to the inside map The main parts of the map are the brain, heart, belly – the main centers of action in my life. Depicting sexualisation by showing unity, power, energy, the layers and millions of things that go into making you and driving you every day. The privates, through which I became a woman, a mother, and its big impact on my life. Power, energy, implosions, explosions, deeper layers.
Nerve Map, 2017 72”H x 29”W Charcoal on Mixed Media Paper
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JACKIE HINKSON My interest in “line” is limited to its role as a visual component in art and not in any more abstract interpretation of it. We all have a good idea what line as a visual element looks like. We all recognise it even when it is obscured by tone, colour, shape and even mass, as in sculpture. I am interested in what line can do and how it is used. To me, “line” is possibly the most effective visual tool one can use to capture the gestural essence of an object, an idea or an experience. That gesture does not have to be one of movement or action, it can be one that captures physical weight or the weight of something slowly experienced and expressed. Line has been expressively used in all its variations by cave men at Lascaux, by Renaissance artists like Da Vinci and Michelangelo, by Daumier, Rembrandt, Toulouse Lautrec, Picasso, Pollock, Rauschenberg, de Kooning, animation and cartoon artists and many others.
Playing Both Sides, 2017 72”H x 29”W Acrylic on Mixed Media Paper
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HORACIO HOSPEDALES The concept was to approach “line” as a found object – a useful and primitive tool that may or may not be suited to the development and communication of an idea. I became absorbed with the building process of interlaced lines from the construction of a single line to the layering of 144 objects to form one line.
Character Flaw, 2017 72”H x 29”W Paper, sewing thread, aluminium tubing, oil paint, glue
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PAUL KAIN My work is informed by the present social and cultural issues that exist in Trinidad. I find ideas within the streets of Port of Spain through the observation of the street dwellers. These persons become noble characters in my imagination, to be catalogued and referenced at a later stage. I find the source of this “visual richness” within this space is due to the fusion of cultures African, Spanish, Indian, and French, that have settled upon this island. Panty Line consists of five panels produced with graphite, acrylic, pen and ink. This work is based on the abductions and abuse of women in our society. I came up with the concept of having numerous types of panties being hung high off telephone pole-lines and coconut trees in an open air sky, while being haunted by a line of black birds that symbolise the perpetrators of these heinous acts. This is to represent a crime that seems to happen in broad daylight right over our heads.
Panty Line, 2017 29”H x 14.5”W each Mixed Media
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CHE LOVELACE This painting is connected to a motif that has been recurring in my work over the last three years or so: the window – specifically, the louvered slats or jalousie windows at my studio space in Chaguaramas. Increasingly, over the past three years of my working there, the space has become a presence in my paintings. While arranging still life objects to be painted close to or in front of these prominent windows, they themselves started to become an important part of the composition. I found myself drawn to how the lines, intervals, and gaps created by the windows helped structure the scene I was painting. When looking at the windows, you are in fact looking at both the physical structure and geometry of the window slats themselves, as well as the scene outside in the distance. In successive paintings, I have arranged the divisions of the window spaces in more imaginative ways, making the slats into varying thickness, or colours or making their edges sharp or soft. The formatting of these elements is playful yet controlled, making a useful improvisation possible. The piece in question here is part of this ongoing experimentation where I depict the windows as real objects, as well as more imaginative or abstract forms that allow flexibility.
Composition with Landscape and Jalousies, 2017 72”H x 29”W Assorted Pigment on Board
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JOSHUA LUE CHEE KONG The act of creating is a strange and fleeting thing. Everyday without distractions ideas flow freely. These ideas stem from and embody a memory. - Symphonic Poem: “The Art of Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson” I believe in the fact that people are shaped by their spaces and the spaces shape them. I had spent most of my time thinking about my previous experiences as I was working on my ideas for this exhibition. Recently my work has been autobiographical as it is authentic, and assists in archiving my memories into physical forms. I have always admired the Corbeaux, a native species of vultures in Trinidad, as they command the skies they inhabit and always find themselves in the most interesting of spaces. The Corbeaux has coexisted with me for most of my life, from my early childhood living on the coast of Cedros, to my recent adventures to the abandoned leper colony on Chachacacare Island. There was even an area of suburban Port of Spain called Corbeaux Town before the Port of Spain harbor was extended and land reclaimed in the 1930s. This would have been close to where the Radisson Hotel is today on Wrightson Road.
Corbeau X, 2017 29”H x 24”W Acrylic on Mixed Media Paper
Corbeau Dreams, 2017 29” H x 24” W Acrylic on Mixed Media Paper
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MARTIN MOUTTET When I contemplated what “line” meant to me, immediately a plethora of idioms, phrases and words came to mind, but these resonated with me the most: “bloodline”, “timeline”, “guideline”, “draw the line” and “cross the line”. I think of the power of that mark and when combined with others whether in the formation of words, symbols, people, buildings or things. It has the capacity to be potent in its execution and intensity to elevate or decimate. We live in a world that is fundamentally patriarchal and I want to challenge and expose this imbalance and oppressive system that continues to dictate the moral and political attitudes to the detriment of a multifaceted society, particularly toward women and children. My piece is a conversation with my younger self that seeks to remind us that there is truth and authenticity that goes beyond our own definition and traditions.
Out of Line, 1999-2017 72”H x 29”L x 6.5”B Oil on paper, acrylic gesso, cedar wood, marine ply, BRC welded wire, red electrical wire, fired clay, vétiver roots
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WENDY NANAN Drawing from Life Everyone draws. It is probably the first way in which we best express what we are thinking to the world. From pre-historic cave man days to the first marks made by our children, marks put together communicate what our minds perceive. Drawing from life is the recommended practice for artists, it teaches not just to look but to see, to figure out depth and space, perspective and how to render that with just a drawn line. The word zenga describes the method of painting and calligraphy used by Zen monks. It comes from a meditative state when the mind becomes quiet and the shoulder and arm intuitively know what to do, to render what is seen, spontaneously, with a simple directness and finality on the paper. In this simplicity the essence of the drawn object is distilled.
Line Drawing, 2017 72�H x 29�W India Ink on Mixed Media Paper
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RICHARD MARK RAWLINS Our national collective memory is short. We never stop to take stock of where we are, or where we’re going. Unfortunately, I think we’re doomed to repeat our mistakes. It is my job to respond to this phenomenon. Polite Line Do Not Cross, can be read as a collection of notes from my current multiple work trajectories and narratives of black identity, race, nationalism and class concerns. These topics don’t make for readily saleable objects when it comes to art in a society that values provincial fare over the more problematic ‘think’ and ‘conceptual’ works of contemporary art practitioners. PLDNC, is a is a combination of Finding Black, (on-going), Resting on our Laurels, 2016 and A Dress to the Nation, 2017. Taken together, they form a personal protest against a system of commodification. Crossing the polite line of things we don’t discuss, the piece challenges the viewer to go further than surface appreciation and nostalgic yearnings for a time when things were supposed to be better.
Polite Line Do Not Cross, 2017 72”H x 29”W Mixed Media on Paper
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ABOUT THE ARTISTS ASHRAPH Born in 1965, Richard Ashraph Ramsaran is a conceptual artist from Trinidad and Tobago. He goes by the name Ashraph. His first solo exhibition was in 1991; several group and solo exhibitions followed over the years. In 2008, he held a conceptual show titled, “A Carnival Band” at the National Museum and Art Gallery and his most recent exhibition, 2013’s “The Mask”, was at Y Art Gallery. In 2009 Ashraph co-founded a small carnival band called Cat in Bag Productions. He has shown his work in Trinidad, St. Lucia, Curaçao, and London. EDDIE BOWEN Born 1963, Eddie Bowen studied at Croydon College UK from 1981- 1985 . He has since been living and working in Trinidad, often letting his environment in San Souci, be his muse. SUSAN DAYAL Susan Dayal was born in Trinidad in 1968. She studied Sculpture at the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee, Scotland. Susan makes sculpture using the technique known locally as wirebending. Her work differs from traditional wirebending, in that she does not cover the wire structures but instead considers these 3 D wire forms as 3D drawings in space. Susan’s work ranges from a commercial line of functional art objects to the wearable sculptures from her Costumed Self-Portrait Series. Susan has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions worldwide including Trinidad, Scotland, France, Canada, Venezuela, and Namibia.
JADE DRAKES Jade Drakes is a Trinidadian craftsman with a fondness for all things craft and animal, especially the dog. She was born in Venezuela of Trinidadian and Italian parentage and moved to Trinidad at a very young age. In her early 20s, she set off to America to study stuff and work like a bitch. She studied Metalsmithing and Theatre at Slippery Rock University and Bench Jewellery and Stone Setting at North Benet Street School. Jade draws her inspiration from nature, old shops that sell old things, old ladies, old men, museums, books - especially children’s books – female contemporary artists, insects, and conversation.
working mainly on exclusive homes throughout New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey in the USA. There was a break in his creative career when he returned to Trinidad in 2004 for family obligations, but has returned to making since 2013.
JACKIE HINKSON Jackie Hinkson is the quintessential Caribbean Artist. A national of Trinidad & Tobago, he has for decades been a painter and interpreter of the landscape, seascape, architecture and people of his country and of the regions’ islands, in watercolours, oils, acrylics, ink, pencil, and crayon and in his sculpture and murals. Hinkson is no closer to adequately explaining his art now than he was decades ago. He sees art as a complex process and believes a work can simultaneously have several layers of interrelated meanings. He edits, distorts and simplifies. He searches for the correct weight of tone, for the correct juxtaposition of shape, for the right light.
CHE LOVELACE Che Lovelace studied fine art at L’Ecole Regionale des Beaux Arts de la Martinique. Though primarily a painter, his tendency has been to see and interpret the world around him through a wide lens. He formalises this sensibility via cycles of art production that are diverse in approach, methodology, and choice of materials, yet interconnected by way of subject and conceptual associations. Increasingly, he has found ways to foster a dynamic interplay between performance and painting. In his recent work there has also been a renewed interest in still life and forms within nature. He lives and works in Port of Spain, Trinidad.
HORACIO HOSPEDALES Horacio Hospedales is a Trinidadborn multi-media artist who has been practicing for twenty-one years. While exhibiting his fine art in Manhattan, he became a muralist and decorative painter,
PAUL KAIN Paul Kain was born in Trinidad and studied at the Open Window Art Academy in Pretoria South Africa, obtaining a four year diploma in fine arts and visual communication and one year at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, Eastern Cape, South Africa. He has participated in numerous group exhibitions, and has had to two solo exhibitions.
JOSHUA LUE CHEE KONG Joshua Lue Chee Kong was born in Trinidad and Tobago. He studied graphic design at the Savannah School of Art and Design, where he received a BFA. After graduating, he worked in New York for a year before returning to Trinidad. His work
had been published in ANNO books, OMG magazine, See Me Here: A Survey of Contemporary Self-Portraits from the Caribbean, Draconion Switch e-magazine and two of his photographic images appeared on the cover of TIME magazine. He has a keen interest in history and culture and is presently exploring Trinidad & Tobago’s folklore. MARTIN MOUTTET Martin Mouttet, born in 1973, grew up in Sevilla, Brechin Castle, and was educated at St. Mary’s College, Port of Spain and Presentation College, Chaguanas. In 1991 he joined Aquarela Galleries and in 2011, together with Geoffrey MacLean and Isabel Brash opened Medulla Art Gallery. Self-taught, Mouttet’s cynical artistic expressions have often been considered controversial. He uses his personal experiences in his work, revealing his emotions of being trapped by religious and social traditions. He uses different mixed media in his presentations. He says: “There is a menacing reticence that looms that I find very hard to digest and my work embodies the dismantling of this unspoken sordid truth.” WENDY NANAN Wendy Nanan, born Port of Spain 1955, BFA 1979, has been working and showing continuously both in Trinidad and abroad since 1986. Some of her most notable shows and imagery to enter the Trinidadian iconography are from the cricket drawings, the Banana sculptures, the “Idyllic Marriage” series, the “Books and Stupas” show, the “Baby Krishna” series and, more recently, in 2016, the shells and pods exhibition. Considered one of Trinidad’s treasured
senior fine artists, her personal vision is that of the contemporary West Indian artist observing a post-colonial creolised society through the lens of a traditional East Indian background, but rooted firmly in feminist ideology. RICHARD MARK RAWLINS Richard Mark Rawlins is a graphic designer and contemporary artist. He is the publisher of the online art magazine Draconian Switch (www. artzpub.com), and collaborator in the Alice Yard contemporary art-space initiative. Noted exhibitions include the “Bienal Internacional de Asuncion” 2015, (Paraguay), the “Jamaica Biennial” 2014, “Digital” 2015, (Jamaica); the “Global Africa Project” 2010, Museum of Art and Design (MAD), New York, USA; “Neo Global”, Miami Art-week 2016; “A Dress to the Nation” 2017, Alice Yard, Trinidad & Tobago. He has also participated in the Vermont Studio Center residency, (USA) and is about to embark on a Master’s degree at the Royal College of Art (RCA).
CATALOGUE © 2017 Published By Yasmin Hadeed and Y Art & Framing Gallery 26 Taylor Street, Woodbrook Trinidad and Tobago (868) 628-4165 Text and Graphic Design Melanie Archer Photography Melissa Miller / Y Art Gallery LINE Exhibition Graphic Nadia Huggins
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A STARTING LINE There was a single starting point: a piece of paper. Not a typical piece, though – one unwieldy in size, precisely six feet high, and needing to be put to use. This need generated a number of conversations between Yasmin Hadeed and Melissa Miller at Y Art Gallery, and me. We talked through possible ideas for exhibitions, interested in seeing what would happen when we gave artists a single piece of paper and a single theme from which to work. We decided to explore “line” first, in part because of its inherent nature as a starting point – an essential element from which ideas are generated. The interpretation of “line” was left open to invited artists; we encouraged them to not only think about line in the literal or physical sense, but also as something created due to the absence or presence of other elements. We suggested, too, that lines could be representational, as with mental or emotional divisions. We encouraged exploration and play, with ideas and with the paper itself. The most explorative use of the paper came via the work of Horacio Hospedales. We’d selected him for the show based on his delicate line drawings, but he chose to step completely out of those confines and experiment with creating line through shadow brought about by obsessive deconstruction and reconstruction, and a dynamic play of positive and negative. Jackie Hinkson also went beyond the watercolours that are typically associated with him, to focus on line in a strict, bold sense. His studio visit declaration of “Line is line; end of story,” resonates with us still. Conversely, Richard Mark Rawlins, Che Lovelace, and Ashraph all work with line within their current frameworks. Rawlins slyly challenges conventions, addressing the idea of stepping over lines by combining three well-known series of his work. Lovelace uses “Line” to isolate a motif that has been recurring in his paintings – louvered window slats – which he executes here with vibrant strokes. Ashraph also looks at built environments, cleverly high-
by Melanie Archer
lighting lines in architecture from his regular walkabouts around Port of Spain. Paul Kain’s colourful panels are deceptive, as they address something quite dark, with line being used in a more symbolic sense to speak to social issues present in Trinidad. On the other hand, Joshua Lue Chee Kong looks inward at the lines created by personal experience. This introspection also informs the work of Martin Mouttet, who takes a searing look at his own personal timeline, exploring different types of lines within scholastic and religious frameworks. The line as an element is distinct in the work of Wendy Nanan, who uses zenga techniques to create a figure drawing defined by direct lines on paper. The quality of these marks contrasts with the work of Jade Drakes, who creates a nerve map of herself, drawing with her eyes closed to form loose, intuitive lines that connect the various centres of her body. Eddie Bowen deliberately articulates points in order to make lines that construct meaning and language in order to create form, while Susan Dayal uses a grid and Fibonacci Spirals to create a drawing that is notable for its combination of technical precision and embrace of slight imperfections. For us, so much of “Line” happened outside of the gallery walls. We were in constant contact with the artists along the way; we had conversations and studios visits, keen to talk through developing ideas and curious to visit their work spaces and see how “Line” was either fitting into existing practices and motifs, or creating an interesting point of departure. We trust that, for them too, that this exhibition presented an opportunity for growth, for taking things one step further, for crossing that particular line.
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