ShortKnee can be traced back to the spoken word traditions of the West African Chantuelle, oral libraries whose recollections made bearable the suffering of slaves on the plantations of Grenada. Once a disguise and a way to compromise, 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, whistles and bells – breathtaking in sunlight masquerade.
My translations explore the art of over 19 artists in particular with reference to works including or featuring pierrot figures, and dealing with war, migration, desolation and isolation, elements which birthed an unique ShortKnee masquerade. Red Hands explores Mexican artist Rufino Tamayo’s works which strongly identify with folk traditions, rural and religious elements, Pre-Hispanic iconography. My version of his 1969 lithograph Máscara Roja, offers a triptych of three white masks, bordered by red hands and streaks of gold. The central panel connects with my interest in the use of Grenada’s Amerindian petroglyph collections as artistic subject. In Mexican wrestling culture, La Máscara Roja (The Red Mask) is a superhero; Red Hands positions the ShortKnee as Grenadian cultural superhero and presents this indigenous carnival character, as contemporary art subject and in an art-historical context.
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| Red Hands |
My exploration of Grenada’s carnival icon, the ShortKnee is part of my larger research and art project, begun in 2008, to visualise this island’s journey from the arrival of the Amazonian peoples through to 1899. In much the same way as the pierrot was significant in 18th century paintings, my ShortKnee live in the translated works of artists who have painted war and migration, events that forced a synthesis of West African tribal masquerade and French folk theatre. I am a self-taught acrylics painter, photographer and writer, with an Associate of Interior Design from the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I am a member of the Grenada Arts Council and the Grenada Patron of the Arts Fund. My ShortKnee works recently exhibited at the Shanghai 2010 Expo in China, has afforded me a 2011 residency at the Art Students League in New York.
Red Hands, triptych, acrylics and oil pastel on pre-stretched canvas.