My April visit to the UK was to attend and present a paper at a conference in Leeds. But as we well brought up West Indian people know, you do not go empty handed. My ‘gift’ shall we say, was to do a bit of community service, and that is how ShortKnee art met the Pepper Pot Day Centre in Ladbroke Grove.
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| ShortKnee art masks |
London: At the invitation of the High Commission for Grenada in the United Kingdom, a Patron of the Pepper Pot Centre, I met with 14 residents on April 10, for an art workshop – to create collaged art masks from paper and cardstock. We talked about the Grenada ShortKnee, and the history behind this indigenous masquerade that I am researching from a visual art point of view. The Pepper Pot Centre ‘provides a wide range of drop-in activities, a hot Caribbean lunch and full day care for older people, part of a comprehensive service to older people from the African Caribbean community in Kensington and Chelsea, to enable them to live more independently in their own homes.’ Raj Jogia, Director at the Centre, expressed his appreciation personally and in a follow-up email, saying ‘the members thoroughly enjoyed their creative time with (the artist) and felt that they had learnt new skills which they didn’t think they had.’
Mr Moses, a former educator at the centre, showed me how to make an origiami bird, which I attached to a mask momento of my visit. I am indebted to my friend, Jocelyn Davidson-Arnott for the warmest of hospitality, and for permission to forage in her attic for many of the materials to create these masks.
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| Mr Moses, me and the Pepper Pot ShortKnee |
These are fabulous ! I really love the large one as well. …and so Shortknees conquering of the World continues !