2012 – My Chantuelle translations continue
Chaotic events south of the Sahara and on the streets of Europe, led to a celebration of survival called Carnival, from which, in Grenada the ShortKnee emerged. West African masquerade traditions fused with French carnavale elements to produce the ShortKnee, a masked carnival character wrapped in six and a half yards of vulgar fabric, mirrors, bells and baby powder. The ShortKnee never laugh. Hidden under white head towels, disembodied under yards and yards of deliberately mismatched fabric, they are breathtaking in brilliant sunlight.
My exploration of Grenada’s carnival icon, the ShortKnee uses translations of other artists’ works to give our local heritage an universal face. Works featuring pierrot figures and pierrot-variants as well as those dealing with war, migration, desolation and isolation, elements which birthed an unique masquerade, all serve my purpose.
 |
| Mirror, Mirror ShortKnee reflects Egúngún |
Mirror, Mirror ShortKnee reflects Egúngún, is influenced by Pablo Picasso’s 1932 Girl before a Mirror. The ShortKnee is the evolved product of a French assimilation of West African traditions imported into Grenada.