Anthea McGibbon, Gleaner Writer
Under the canopy of high spirits, love, and team support intricately woven by the West Indies team, cricket visitors can view Jamaica's culture through an islandwide kaleidoscope of local art forms.
The recently concluded Mutual Gallery's 'Art of Ceramics' displayed exquisite ceramics reflecting the signature styles and flirtations of their creators. At Harmony Hall, visitors were navigated through the opening of 'Old Marks and Engravings', an exhibition of historical maps and charts, and afterwards given the opportunity to amass decorative functional tools. At the Art Centre, Old Hope Road, two upcoming painters are featured, but no doubt are among the lustrous specks adorning the succession of the symmetry of cricket images rotated through the island's exhibiting space.
At Mutual Gallery, 21 ceramists told many tales through their clay manipulations. The fascination with buildings, nature, culture, freedom of expression and texture was as richly evidenced as the explorations with firing and glazing techniques culminating in well-finished works ideal for a collector. (Highlighting the influence and tributes to masters Cecil Baugh and David Dunn, Valerie Thomas spoke on the relevance of ceramics to archaeologists who, she said, often relied on this form of artefacts to learn the culture of users through history).
Captivating pieces
Among the pieces which were all captivating were Phillip Supersad's 'Drum Riddim', Donovan Fairweather's 'La Femme', Angella Brown's 'Blue Vase', Marjorie Keith had 'Cricket Glory' and Michael Lane's 'Twist'.
Along the idyllic north coast, 10 miles from Ocho Rios, Jonathan Collier transforms one room at Harmony Hall to a life-size atlas of maps and charts. Pausing from his busy schedule, between Australia and Jamaica, the international map/chart collector and dealer answered fielded questions from The Sunday Gleaner team, with witty responses enough to spark immeasurable interest in the historic 'Jamaica Engraved' exhibition.
He explained, in a humorous vein, that the maps/charts were primarily published through history to provide information on politics and geographic boundaries, and gave examples. Of prime example is the large scale map 'Surrey County', prepared by the Royal Commission (1866) investigating the killings of the Maroons, and the army in their quest to restore order after the Morant Bay Rebellion. 'Surrey County' documents the movements of the troops and maroons, the topography and infrastructure of eastern Jamaica back then.
The maps and charts, categorised by year, reflected more than a development of technology and craftsmanship of the makers (for example Wyfliet, Mercator and
Ogilvy) and publishers. To make the maps more interesting colour pigments, as explained by Collier, were often added by hand, sometimes bychildren. It was interesting to see Jamaica once represented as a vertical squiggle, that is before 1671 when proper survey of the island was done. After that the changed representational shape of Jamaica remained constant.
The lifestyle of the early Spanish tight-lipped about their discoveries, the cunnings of the rich Italians to obtain information, Jamaican colonialism and original landscapes and birds were also highlighted throughout the displays.
On the opening day, as treat to the intense lessons, there were decorated functional items being sold by two new members of the Harmony' Hall's Jamaican Georgian Society, Steve and Pam Kolowski. Travelling from U.S.A., the newest members of the Society which enables artists to give back to Jamaica, are already earning substantial sums in both countries, for improving the Swift Purscell Boys' Home, St. Mary. Items decorated with imagery from the Caribbean sea included brushes and household tools such as the hammer and barbecue fork.
Back in Kingston, the mixed media works of former student of Barrington Watson, Katrina Abrahams and Nyla D?Andrea acrylics are on display at the Art Centre, Hope Road.
Katrina's pieces, a fair balance of people, landscapes and flora showed her love for old houses. 'The View' , 'Home in Savanna-La-Mar' and 'Hope from Downtown', were among the strongest. Nyla D'Andrea had only eight pieces, but done with all the intricacy that's demanded in small-scaled paintings. Mostly about houses, her strongest pieces were 'Through the Bridge' and 'Country House'.
Several artists whose brush have been directed at recording cricket are on display around Kingston. Their main inspiration being the early glory days, energy and elegance of West Indian cricket. Quite impacting is the successful manipulation of varied techniques in the artistic deliveries of almost all members of the West Indies team, as local artists for years, focus on cricket more than any other sport.
At Bank of Jamaica, Patrick Kitson's realistic pencil drawings are impressive. Mainly employing the cross hatch technique, the artist is exact in his representations of his choice of West Indies players. Not only is he masterful in smudging the lead to ideal gradient tonal values, but he exposes its potential to create the illusion of photography, but to another dimension. His designs are balanced, with proportionate figures, good detail, and the works are reproducible without any fear of loosing the image's strength.
Brian Lara, Curtley Ambrose and Michael Holding are among the realistic depictions arresting us on the field of actual play, but the black and white restrictions remind us that they are only illustrations.
The basic subtleties of the cricket, and its participants unfold in the works of Beverley Jackson at the Hilton. This is a refreshing confirmation that women appreciate cricket, and are as capable as their male counterparts to reproduce its elements in good art. The pieces, though lacking in depth of paint application and focus of technique, makes the game attractive.
At the Pegasus, cricket enthusiast Richard Blackford exposes more from his collection since the launch of his cricket calendar. This time however, his pieces are illustrated more aggressively, with stronger colours and better pronounced statements compensating for the artist's obvious degree of struggle in capturing the proportion of some of the featured players.
Two exhibitions further provide a sound education on the sports early aristocratic history. At the African Caribbean Institute the exhibition is framed in a vintage setting. On the walls are silouhettes of a cheering crowd, an ideal background to sculptured cricketers, by Kay Sullivan, and replicas of the game old bats, gloves. In one corner our memory of 'Ketchie Shoobie' (a coconut bough bat and green orange is leaned adjacent to its replacement, a patched up cricket bat and red cricket ball. Higher up the walls cricket greats such as Jamaican national hero, Norman Manley, and clubs are featured.
At the Jewish Heritage Centre, a continuing exhibition well-worth seeing features the first two West Indian century makers against England - Ivan Barrow and George Headley. Making his fellow Jamaicans Jews proud, WI wicketkeeper Barrows scored the first century in the 1933 test at Old Trafford. The exhibition, comprises of newspaper clippings, from The Gleaner and English press, displays cartoons, poems and photographs published at that time on this remarkable "coming of age" feat in West Indies Cricket.
At the opening, Lyndie Headley, son of George Headley and Gayle Barrow, daughter of Ivan Barrow, were present and unveiled pictures of their famous fathers.
ENDER: Anthea McGibbon, a graduate of the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts has more than 10 years experience in the fields of journalism and the arts. Contact her at islandartattack@yahoo.co.uk or anthea.mcgibbon@gleanerjm.com.
