by Joanna Krogh
The University of the West Indies (UWI) St Augustine campus has a
vibrant home of the Arts in their Creative Arts Center. Though one
may feel that the Theatre studies are the most successful to the
public, by way of their many runs at home and in the Caribbean like
Rawle Gibbons' seris of Carnival plays and Tony Hall's Jean and Dinah
(based on Sparrow's calypso), the Visual Arts niche at the Creative
Arts Center is also a very cozy one.
This year, the Degree Visual Arts students will have exhibited their
works separately from the Certificate or diploma students, another
positive move towards the integration of a full Fine Arts degree that
the Jamaican UWI campus already has.
The five students are Shalini Singh, Joanna Krogh, Vanesa Manzano,
Anthony Chong Ton and Rosemarie Gajar.
The exhibition entitled "4 dimensions" reveals the three-year
development of the graduating artists, and showcases their expertise
after many courses of art history, drawing, painting and mixed media
studios, wire-bending (associated with Carnival art), textiles,
sculpting and film and television communications.
This core of students made their mark on campus by founding the
energetic film club UWImedia, whose President Rosemarie Gajar had
already worked at the local television station AVM. UWImedia really
got involved in the film and video industry by hosting guest lectures
by film producer Anthony Maharaj, critic Bruce Paddington, and
Francis-Ann Solomon (now a producer with the BBC).
They also conducted workshops on script-writing and featured a movie
and criticism at their weekly meetings. Their involvement in UWImedia
boosted Joanna Krogh and Vanesa Manzano to undertake a summer
apprenticeship at Trinity Television Network (TTN), where they both
produced mini-documentaries.
Rightly called "Sister Vanesa" as she is a nun at the convent of
St Joseph of Cluny, Vanesa always remembers her father painting when
she was a child. Thrust at the convent to prepare to teach after her
degree, Vanesa soon found herself exploring the definition of
"artist" for herself. To her, UWI was like starting over. It was like
being "thrown in the deep blue sea and you had to learn to swim."
Vanesa appreciated the trust that her instructor, Ken Crichlow had in
her. To her it was a challenge to be true to herself and to believe
that she had the power.
She enjoys studying the human figure, and has recently begun to
explore oils on canvas with her abstraction of the Trinidadian
landscape.
Her "Penzance: View from Cumana" (above) developed into the "Evolution of Penzance" (below), a wild and breezy abstraction of the same view from one of the nuns' remote convents near the rugged beach-break of Toco.
At Trinity Television Network (TTN) Vanesa produced a mini-documentary on the philosophy of Liminality as it appears in Trinidad.
Shalini, like most of the artists in this group, wanted to pursue
art as a degree at UWI. As it was not offered as yet, she had to
settle with a History major. But soon Shalini realized that her
History classes infused her semi-abstract art with vitality and
colour. She would dream in class of heroes like Toussaint
L'Ouverture, making sketches during the lectures only to elaborate
them on canvas later. She even began to apply her sketches to her
History assignments.
Shalini acknowledges the influence of campus life in her work: the
scenery, the courses and of-course, the people. She notes that "as
frustration on campus grew, the need to paint grew."
Shalini works with a wide selection of media, from acrylics, oils,
pastels to house-paint and lip-stick, sometimes all on one piece! She
is an emotive painter who reacts out of inner experiences. Quiet
though she may be, Shalini is always successful. She was awarded an
Honors degree and would like to pursue a Masters in Art.
Shalini's "Swan Song" (above) and Carrington's History Tutorial are examples of her reaction to the campus scenery and academia.
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