Carnival, from which, in Grenada the ShortKnee emerged, resulted from chaotic events south of the Sahara and on the streets of Europe played out in the Caribbean. My exploration of Grenada’s carnival icon, the ShortKnee, a masked carnival character wrapped in six and a half yards of vulgar fabric, mirrors, whistles, bells and baby powder – focuses mainly on translations.
A confluence of European and West African beliefs in an island environment is the basis for religiocultural characterswhich make up the body of Grenada’s traditional carnival. I use other artists’ works featuring pierrot and clown-like figures or those dealing with war, migration, desolation and isolation, as core references to assist with my research into this unique island masquerade. For these images my references were Ascension 1993by Milton George, Da Vinci’s Last Supper, and two sketches I made – (i) in Saint George’s the inside of the (then) ruined RC cathedral and (ii) of Shiva/Siva at the V&A Museum, London.
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| SK Ascension |
Milton George was one of Jamaica’s most significant contemporary painters. Ascension (1993 was one of his most haunting meditations on the subject of death. My version shows the ShortKnee in limbo over a hilled landscape, a Baron Samedi character (keeper of the dead) in the background, speaking to the interference of the ShortKnee ascending to its proper place in Grenada’s culture.
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| SK First Breakfast |
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| SK 30 pieces of silver |
Da Vinci’s Last Supper represents the final days of Jesus when he announces that one of his twelve disciples would betray him. My version entitled First Breakfast, says much the same. The ShortKnee (from personal correspondence) gather in a secret place early on the mornings of carnival to dress, eat and prepare themselves for the days of parade. Each troupe has its own rituals and do not interact with other troupes (to protect information about their costumes) until they meet on the parade streets. The Judas in my image is the wolf in sheep’s clothing, an apt phrase, given that the common ShortKnee headgear, a white towel, is referred to locally as ‘being in sheep’s head’. I also created 30 pieces of silver depicting the ShortKnee’s face and mirrors, from discarded beer cans to accompany this image.
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| SK in church |
The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception sits on a hill previously known as Hospital Hill, now Church Street. It was built circa 1818 to replace a smaller Saint James Chapel relocated to that site, as a replacement for the 1690 French built Saint James RC Church constructed on the site of the current Anglican Church. In 2004 Hurricane Ivan destroyed a good portion of the cathedral and I was allowed to take photos of the interior some months later. I had envisioned some sort of exhibition in the ruins, but the time was not opportune. This image shows the ShortKnee, a creature of European and West African religious beliefs inside the ruins.
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| ShortKnee as Siva |
The granite sculpture of Shiva/Sivain the V&A Museum’s South-East Asia collection represents the supreme teacher of yoga, music, divine knowledge and all the arts and sciences, seated in the heroic posture on a rocky landscape surrounded by wild animals, and a demon who embodies ignorance and forgetfulness. At the time I did my original sketch in situ, I was struck by the possibility that the ShortKnee could be translated not only in paint but in any other means at the visual artist’s disposal.
In executing the charcoal and acrylic painting, and then reading the accompany blurb on the Siva sculpture from the V&A site, http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O25008/siva-daksinamurti-sculpture-unknown/I am more inclined to believe that a sculpture depicting the ShortKnee as a holder of Grenada’s cultural knowledge, is not far off the mark.