Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 29/Sep 14:59

Something Everywhere focuses on local architecture of Trinidad and Tobago

HASSAN ALI Architecture can be iconic, especially in a world of smartphones wherein visual information about other nations flows into the palms of our hands seamlessly and unrelentingly. Buildings, statues, even smaller architectural features, can become symbolic of a place. Lady Liberty standing on her island is a part of New York’s identity; the almost-500-year-old Fushimi Castle in Kyoto is part of Japan’s; and the Sydney Opera House, part of TT’s. These symbols are more than just signifiers of different places. Lady Liberty, for example, bares a poem by Emma Lazarus, an American poet, which humanises the statue – gives her a voice which pleads for the tired and poor to come to her lamp and golden door. The American Dream. [caption id="attachment_1181416" align="alignnone" width="1024"] -[/caption] Wyatt Gallery’s latest exhibition, Something Everywhere, at LOFTT Gallery focuses on the local architecture of TT. However, rather than focusing on the Magnificent Seven, the ramshackle, rural wooden houses or Port of Spain/San Fernando’s city views, Gallery is looking at particulars. Before addressing the content, let’s first consider the process. Something Everywhere consists entirely of cyanotype prints on either watercolour paper or 100 per cent cotton. Cyanotype printing is a method of printing in which one mixes chemicals onto their print medium, paper and fabric in this case, before placing the materials they wish to print onto the medium above it and then letting them sit in the sun. The sun’s light then develops the image onto the medium. As the name of the process suggests, the colours of these prints are blue. [caption id="attachment_1181417" align="alignnone" width="1020"] -[/caption] Gallery says that he is inspired by the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi, which can be understand summarily as finding beauty in imperfection, and that it helped him embrace the happy accidents and inconsistencies which come with this printing process which is so reliant on natural conditions (rather than digital control). Throughout most his career as a photographer, Gallery worked with film but says that recently he’s been working digitally. He says that the choice to make cyanotypes was born out of a desire to get physical with creation again. [caption id="attachment_1181418" align="alignnone" width="761"] -[/caption] The two main symbols throughout the 64-piece exhibition are breezeblocks and power lines (sometimes attached to lampposts) – symbols of modern, urban TT which can be found across the country. Gallery says the inspiration for choosing these architectural features came from his older bodies of work, Subtext and Subtext II. In those shows, Gallery photographed street-level paper-ad installations between old ads being cleaned off and new ads being plastered on other city surfaces. The choice to focus on smeared, absent advertisements in New York was fitting. The city is an ever-changing landscape whose icons are determined by the latest trends and depth of marketing agencies. So, what do breezeblocks and powerlines say about TT? [caption id="attachment_1181419" align="alignnone" width="1024"] -[/caption] Breezeblocks, TT, are both decorative and functional. In times before modern air conditioning could cool rooms to set temperatures in a matter of minutes, breezeblocks were a more common long-term ventilation solution. Over time, the patterns have become synonymous with TT’s cultural history and one can still find patterned bricks all over the country power lines are a direct symbol of modernity. Consider how dependent TT is on electricity and the technologies we require electricity for. The exhibition consists of various breezeblock patterns and electrical wires/lampposts printed onto cotton/paper. There are four or five breezeblock patterns utilised throughout the show. In addition to the variation on patterns, the breezeblock pieces also come in varied grids – two by two, three by three, etc. Some pieces of fabric, because of their colour before dyeing, have a red/purple tint on them in addition to the blue while others feature light embroidery. [caption id="attachment_1181420" align="alignnone" width="767"] -[/caption] Gallery says that he is attempting to identify an “urban vernacular.” He says that he’d previously tried to take pictures of signs in Port of Spain and environs but didn’t feel inspired to do anything with them. Rather, the breezeblocks and power lines caught his attention. Gallery also says that these fixtures in our society make him feel both trapped within and locked out of spaces – that the sight of these things can feel draining to him. The 64-piece exhibition repeats itself quite a bit. Despite the various patterns, the breezeblocks are all printed in the same flat, direct perspective. With 46 sets of bricks and 18 sets of wires, the show does feel bloated and repetitive. The content isn’t new to the TT art scene – or even Caribbean regional art. [caption id="attachment_1181421" align="alignnone" width="843"] -[/caption] In the Caribbean art at large, the breezeblocks are most famously associated with Christopher Cozier, a TT artist. In Cozier’s work, the bricks are symbolic of cultural memory and aspirations to higher social mobility – in pre-AC times when breezeblocks were considered a status symbol. Cozier also opened up a dialogue about breezeblocks with his 2013, InDevelopment series which he invited artists from the country, the region and beyond to create their own works with the bricks. Gallery says he is aware of these artists and these projects. Perhaps he isn’t striving for novelty. One takes from one’s surrounding sights and sounds whatever their mind can pull from it. There are some who will see these works, feel that these imported patterns are symbolically intertwined with TT’s colonial past and derived one history from it. Another may see these blocks which only allow air, light and prying eyes to pass through and feel drained or trapped, as Gallery does. [caption id="attachment_1181422" align="alignnone" width="845"] -[/caption] Of course, what audiences take away is entirely their own conception. Something Everywhere opened September 20 and closes on October 4 at the LOFTT Gallery, 63 Rosalino Street, Woodbrook, opening hours are 10 am-6 pm Tuesday through Friday and 11 am-4 pm on Saturdays.   The post Something Everywhere focuses on local architecture of Trinidad and Tobago appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.