Crown of Thorns

Lest it be thought from the last posting that my work be too frivolous (not that that would necessarily be a bad thing!), from almost ten years ago, here are pieces from an exhibition based on the story of the crucifixion of Jesus, which I named Crown Of Thorns, because only when it was nearing completion of the project did I realize that nowhere had I actually reproduced the wounds of the flagellation or nails or even the crown of thorns itself.

I had experimented with this in one sketch of the flagellation or Man of Sorrows - and had to stop. I simply was not able to bring myself to look at the awful physical disfigurements and torture so traditional to the story (this was before Mel Gibson’s truly disgusting movie, after which I more than ever felt felt vindicated in maintaining my original position of restraint. Grunewald’s revolting Isenheim Altarpiece I have never been able to stomach either, for that matter – which is perhaps the whole point! ).

The psychological agony was enough, surely, and seemed all that was necessary to the real message of redemption, anyway! In fact, I am yet to complete the centre piece of the story, the crucifixion itself! What a terrible joyless thing this rite of Christian salvation is! Surely there needs to be lessons learned from the Hindus and Buddhists, at least for some kind of balance between joy and sorrow! Although, who suffered more deprivation and anguish in the pursuit and name of revelation than Buddha himself. So, what do I know!

The series was entirely black and white, deliberately archaic in the sense that I used the stark contrast of line and solid black in quotation of the Greeks in their wonderful narrative decoration of earthenware. This also seemed to lend a sense of claustrophobia to the events of the story, placing a solid weight over everything, as if there was literally no way the participants could crawl out or escape from under that black dead mass.

Later, I expanded on the work. Graphite, and colored pencil pieces based on the original pen and ink drawings, in the way I work, always going back to things that need – demand - further development and reworking. Sometimes over dozens of years I’ll go back and do this, a kind of self cannibalization, I guess. The pieces are relatively small. It was suggested they should be room-size. I’m going to work on that too – someday!

INDIA IN TRINIDAD

Two years ago, at A Different View book shop, Richard Bolai and Adel Todd were discussing a joint show they wanted to have and I asked if I could put a couple of small pieces in among theirs’, and they said, “Okay,” These are the pieces. The basic idea of the show was India In Trinidad. Our separate associations with India in Trinidad are and have been, intense and deeply personal, as well as general in the same sense of what every Trinidadian experiences of India here on a daily, hourly, basis – politically, culturally, socially etc.. Speaking for myself, I grew up in Palmiste, South Trinidad, before Dewali was ever declared a holiday, among the then still lipe-walled and carat-roofed houses of the villages of Debe and Duncan and Cainan villages, and lived with an Indian man from Woodbrook for many years. My own couple of pieces also came out of the experience of two earlier shows, both Inspired by the Kama Sutra, and some others pieces based on the Krishna story, specifically the Radha and the Gopies episode, still to be completed. Adele was working towards performance and installation pieces, and some other multimedia works, I think, based on how India works in Trinidad, so many times and ways removed from the subcontinent itself. I don’t know what Richard is doing. Well, the whole thing is still in the air, is still that awful thing, a work in progress. We have each of us produced work, a lot of it, but it’s still waiting to come together, to be formatted/framed (in my case) and produced/performed (in Adel’s case) and published (in Richard’s), I think.

So here is some of my work. I’ve opted to show details here because the blog format cannot accommodate the very fine detail of the full pieces, which are actually not that large - the friezes, for instance, are not more than12 x 20 inches, but densely worked in the spirit of Hindu miniatures. The line drawings are complete in themselves. Sometimes I work them further with colour, sometimes not. This is done purely on a whim, if I think the application of colour will amplify or make the picture more complete or finished - finished in the sense of being more polished But there are some who consider colour to be an affectation, an effete redundancy, and sometimes I see their point. So I leave them in the more pristine and pure state of line.

An observation - how strange it is to discover that what you thought were two very separate and different things are really, exactly, one and the same! I’ve been working on a series from the story of Hercules, specifically Hercules and the Daughters of Thespius. It is, visually, the same story as the Hindu story of Krishna and the Gopies - the man/god’s impregnation of a legion of women – though of course the Hindus out-do the Greeks by a couple thousand women. The cultures may be different, but the stories are the same, the psychology is the same. I’ve been told that this is the peculiar dream of all the male side of the gender divide, to have the sexual prowess or ability, as well as the opportunity, to endlessly service a never ending multitude of the fairer sex! Muslims martyrs of course do one better than everyone else, achieving the honour, albeit a mixed and perhaps painful one, for both parties! - of deflowering a legion of virgins in heaven in reward for their sacrifice!