Pepper-pot of creativity
Published:Sunday | October 20, 2013 | 12:00 AM
Amitabh Sharma, Contributor
Most potent things come in small packages, it is said, which might hold true for a landmass that can be traversed in half a day, point to point. The potency of creative juices is both intoxicating and a heady cocktail of cultures and media.
Barbados, like the sister islands in
the Caribbean, is one such melting pot, where the key ingredients of
creative acumen, sprinkled with a liberal dose of inspiration are
brewing under the crisp Caribbean sunshine.
"There is a
lot of talent here (in Barbados) and across the region," says Martina
Pilé, president of Arts Council of Barbados.
Pilé, a
trained ceramist, who has made Barbados her home for the last 27 years,
delves in various media, from painting, sketching and her island-found
love, calabash - a fruit and a medium of
expression.
"We need avenues to showcase the talent,"
the newly installed president of the Arts Council said, adding that it
is her dream to expand the scope of work of the artists, to collaborate
and extend the creative footprint.
Her thoughts are
concurred with by Allison Thompson, senior tutor and head of the
Division of Fine Arts at Barbados Community College. "We have immense
talent coming out of the school," she says. "Every year, the students
are getting better, they are willing to experiment and look beyond the
obvious."
But, she adds, lack of resources locally and
the limited exposure are stifling the growth potential. "This can be
addressed by working together with other artists, sharing ideas and
thought processes," Thompson adds.
Like the layers of
ingredients and flavours that tingle the taste buds, there are varied
feasts for the eyes dotting the island, some predictable, others that
burst in a myriad unexpected places.
Pilé's studio
overlooks the pristine turquoise waters of the Caribbean Sea, whose
vastness, she says, inspires her like the cool sea breeze. Her works and
raw material lay interspersed with the other, a fusion of
media.
"I diversified into calabash when I came to
Barbados," the Luxembourg-born-and-raised artist says. "Ceramics is my
first love, but for an artist, any material is a medium of expression,
so I do whatever kindles my creative spirit."
Her
collection includes an array of calabash art-ware - ceramic pots,
paintings, sketches and clay tiles - a potpourri of artistic expression.
From the cobbled stone lanes and stone houses of her home town
Bourglinster, Luxembourg, Pilé fuses the European charm with the
Caribbean vitality. "Most of what I make is functional - calabash tea
sets to ceramic ware," she says.
Snuggled in the west
coast of the island in Durant's Village is Kenneth Blackman's
studio.
Blackman's towering frame rises like the
rainforest-like surroundings of mahogany trees, above the humble
surroundings, a low-roof wooden hutment, which is his creative 'home'.
Here, he is busy carving mahogany and giving it varied shapes, forms and
meanings, using a chisel.
"My works are a search of
myself," said Blackman, a self-taught sculptor, who has won accolades
across the world. "I get inspired by nature, the everyday happenings and
incidences.
"This is my little heaven," Blackman
says, pointing to the pristine surrounding that is dotted with his
sculptures, some perched on pedestals, others etched into the bark of
the trees.
The lanky artist's work looks into the
metaphysical in different forms and shapes, some query the lack of
humanity - the wars and oppression around the
world.
Talent pool apart, the predicament of the arts
not getting the recognition and the artists the desired returns are the
stark realities that need to be addressed.
"We need to
expand it (the arts) beyond the shores," says
Thompson.
"(The) Caribbean is like a pepper pot of
creativity, the kind of diversity you can find here is unparalleled,"
says Pilé, "We need to fuse these different flavours (of creativity and
expression) and help them nurture, grow and
develop."
Photos by Amitabh
Sharma