In Defense of the Beautiful

This statement was written by Susan Mains and taken from www.susanmains.com

In Defense of the Beautiful

Contemporary Art is moved through a world-wide schedule of art fairs and biennales highly constructed by an establishment that designates its stars, who are rewarded by high price tags on works of questionable expression. These products may or may not stand the test of time when price and value would come into equilibrium.

 

The artists of the English-speaking Caribbean islands are largely ignored in the rarefied air of this art activity. Few of these artists have been able to step on to the stage of international recognition, to have their works seen or sold at these events. There are a host of reasons for this, but partially responsible is the very strong connection to and representation of the natural environment.

When a curator from North America or Europe looks at a landscape depicting the beauty of our islands, usually the work is dismissed as “kitsch” or art made as a souvenir for quick tourist sales. True, there is much that is sold that is not really art, but repetitive, stylized representation of easily identifiable icons—the palm trees, market ladies or beach scenes. However, for contemporary Caribbean artists to divorce themselves from the natural environment in favour of northern urban subjects, palettes and light is bowing to an establishment that resembles the colonial imperialism of our not too distant past.

 

High colour and contrast saturate our vision every moment that we look outside. While we live in relative peace, our human issues, our politics, our hopes and aspirations also are strong in contrast and dimension. The “identity search” that purportedly identifies Caribbean contemporary artist is perhaps an imposed ideology.

We know who we are. We are a rich island civilization framed by a synthesis of many peoples and cultures. We are those who have to dig deeply into our personal reserve of inner resources to deal with living in a part of the world where making art isn’t easy or convenient. Creativity springs from this inconvenience. We are not recognized within our own cultural milieu as being important contributors, yet we document our diverse and dynamic society within its achingly beautiful natural environment. And we are a people who faithfully rebuild after that same beauty turns on us in a violent hurricane or earthquake and destroys the work of a lifetime.

 

So when a Caribbean collector purchases a work of art from “home” he is not just buying something to decorate his walls. He is proclaiming with his dollars that this art work has great value. He is defying the deeply entrenched notion that whatever comes from “away” is intrinsically better than what is produced locally. He is casting his vote of confidence to the further building of this West Indian civilization that in terms of human development is a shining example to the rest of the world.

 

Therefore, I present this body of work of the beautiful Caribbean, with no apology

No Woman No Cry

Soon you will be able to view a presentation of my new work on my site http://www.ashermains.com/.

The idea behind this painting is that music creates an environment - a soundscape - and then we can experience the environment through music.
Music entangles and embraces, intertwines and is repelled, music is the air and the ground. In "No Woman No Cry" the music is in the sky and bounces off the sides of the buildings.
Music drapes over the crying woman. Unintelligible calligraphy are the song's lyrics as it constructs the world we experience.
Music represents the power to experience through others.

Through these paintings I want to give visual reference to aural cues. I want to help the viewer experience. I want to change the way you view your music.

Tools of Decolonization

When I say "Decolonization" I do not mean a destruction of a place that was once colonized. Decolonization is the active reconfiguration of a society in the light of the debilitating effects of colonialism and now, neocolonialism. The extremely summed up version is that places that were colonized, specifically in this case the Caribbean, were not settled to be enriching centers of self advancement. All colonies were settled in order to benefit the country doing the colonizing. This ripple effect has produced a mentality that places like the Caribbean are second rate to places like the UK or USA. Once there was an agricultural bounty in the Caribbean and while that is still to some degree being taken advantage of - another problem is the intellectual harvest. Because systems had not been set up for intellectual advancement within the island, anything serious beyond secondary school needs to be done over seas. Once people have a university degree they begin a career path overseas that is non-existent back home. A lack thereof perpetuates a lack thereof. 

So there needs to be decolonization to be free from certain mentalities about self as dictated by colonialism.

My brief thoughts are on the use of music and art as tools of decolonization. Reggae music is rooted in the heart of decolonization. From the roots reggae supernovas like Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Burning Spear, Bunny Wailer, Jimmy Cliff, and more we get music of resistance. Not accepting what colonialism has given the people. Reggae is intrinsically educative. A divergence from reggae in the Caribbean towards mainstream North American music would represent a loss of identity as an enriched Caribbean person. If I were an educator in the Caribbean I would consider making a survey of reggae, curriculum in schools.

Music in the Caribbean is all encompassing. Rhythm is ingrained and even speech patterns are musical. From the commentary style of Calypso, to which there is no real North American response, to the intense, percussive style of steel pan music, the Caribbean offers musically to the world something unique. Sometimes the things that are so pervasive are the things that escape your attention. Music needs to be taught in the Caribbean either explicitly or implicitly as a vehicle for mental emancipation. 

Art is another avenue where people from the Caribbean can show their colors. The beautiful scenes that flow from the brushes of Caribbean artists is seen by the international art community as shallow and kitsch; artistic panhandling to the aesthetic weaknesses of the unsophisticated tourist industry. One of the reasons however is that much of the art community has gone down the direction of a kind of deconstructionism. Art to them represents things that are dark and ugly and taboo - and to represent the beautiful scenes of the Caribbean is antithetical to what they perceive as art. 

It is more of a credit to the Caribbean artist that in spite of the centuries of oppression and the current neocolonialism structures that impede progress beauty is still pursued. Even more credit to the artists who love beauty because living in the Caribbean that is what you get! If Caribbean artists are to be criticized for not being cynical enough at the world around them then the Caribbean artists should be able to criticize the international art community for allowing their spirit to be broken. 

Music will rescue us. Art will rescue us. Jah will rescue us. 

This post is severely under-expounded, I will mostly likely bring up some of the topics again later. This is to serve as a cursory preface to my perception. 

Callosums

I have had a break through with thinking about the new work I am doing with my art. I have been trying to conceptualize portraying music visually and it's taken some mental somersaults to peg down a concept that works. My main problem is the conflict between left brain and right brain approaches to music and art. As an artist I have been surprised recently to discover that I have a lot of left brain tendencies. In the process of painting music my first attempts were little more than a new notation. The work was a description of the music based on different musical elements of the music. I realize that the left brain in me wants to 'describe' the music and switching over to the right brain allows me more freedom to 'portray' the music. I think my work from now will involve a balance between the two. Incorporating valid abstract imagery with aesthetic and accessible concrete subject. I'm calling these pieces 'Callosums" because the balance be between the left and right brain is possible because of the corpus callosum joining the two. More on this to come!