By Alim Hosein
The awards ceremony for the 2019 Guyana Visual Arts Com-petition was held at the National Cultural Centre on Thursday June 27, and the Guyana Visual Arts Exhibition was officially launched later the same evening by Minister of Social Cohesion George Norton at the National Gallery of Art. Both events were successful and created a vibrant, meaningful space for art in Guyana.
Art and the nation
The awards ceremony and official launch ended a week of activities which also included the judging of the competition, workshops, a public lecture and a reception for local artists, their friends and families and art lovers and supporters. These events, all falling under the Ministry of the Presidency, Department of Social Cohesion, Culture, Youth and Sport, helped to bring persons from various walks of life together to pause for a while and recognise the creative potential of their countrymen and women.
Looking at the large numbers of persons pouring into the National Gallery, scrutinising and discussing the artwork, and agreeing and disagreeing among themselves, and listening to the counterpoints of arguments and discussion at the public lecture at the Umana Yana, I realised that the Guyana Visual Arts Compe-tition and Exhibition (GVACE) activities make a noteworthy contribution to Guyana’s cultural development, education, and promotion of social cohesion. And standing on the steps of the Cultural Centre before and after the Awards Ceremony made me realise that the whole week of activities also helps Guyana’s private economy since each activity engaged the services of numerous suppliers, including providers of materials, equipment and services, plus caterers, taxi drivers and other persons who provide services to the artists and art lovers. All of this is in addition to the intrinsic benefits of art to any nation.
Events
Judging of the competition began on June 21 and concluded on June 24 at the National Gallery. The judges, chaired by Dr Rupert Roopnaraine, and including Anna Serrao (Trinidad and Tobago), George Struikel-blok (Suriname), Abyssinian Carto (Guyanese, New York) and Ohene Koama, considered a total of 232 pieces of artwork, the largest number of entries ever received. These works were submitted by a total of 103 artists, which is also the highest number of artists to enter the competition.
On June 25, Dr Roopnaraine discussed some of the themes which form the backbone of Guyanese art in his talk “Recurring Themes in Guyanese Art”, and some of the artists, such as Bernadette Persaud, Stanley Greaves, Desmond Ali and Philip Moore, whose work helped to establish and sustain these themes. This generated an engaging discussion on what is Guyanese art, whether art is universal or whether it can be narrowly defined within a national context, art education in Guyana, the role of art in a society, and the particular power of art in Guyana to break down social barriers and foster cohesiveness.
Earlier that day, three of the judges – Anna Serrao, George Struikelblok and Abyssinian Carto – held workshops for the entrants to the competition and the students of the Burrowes School of Art. The judges dealt with a number of topics such as quality of work, design, craftsmanship, developing ideas and themes, and showed videos which introduced the participants to different ways of expressing ideas.
A new feature, the GVACE Education Bursary, was also highlighted at the awards ceremony. This bursary, which is intended to support student artists, was awarded on a competitive basis after nominations were received from the two main art-educating institutions, the E.R. Burrowes School of Art and the University of Guyana Crea-tive Arts Division. The nominations highlighted the candidates’ academic performance, their artwork, their activities in art and their all-round performance. Two bursaries were awarded to Latiana Williams of Burrowes and Chelsea Ramotar of UG. The Education Bursary will be awarded every two years – each time a GVACE is held.
Artists
While the established artists were a strong presence among the entries, including such names as Oswald Hussein, Desmond Ali, Francis Ferreira, Bryan Clarke, Betsy Karim, Josefa Tamayo, Dawne Isaacs-McKenzie, Merlene Ellis, Jorge Bowen Forbes, Angold Thompson and Ras Iah, there was a notable increase in the number of young artists. Some of these came from the E.R. Burrowes School of Art and from the University of Guyana’s Fine Arts programme in the Depart-ment of Language and Cultural Studies.
Some of these emergent artists have been quietly developing themselves. These include Elodie Cage-Smith, Dominique Hunter, Courtney Douglas, Staffon Williams and Stephen McKenzie, among others. Then there were the novices, including Tammy Walker, Sheliza Rampersaud, Kamalita Heralal, Osman Akhtar, Roann Pierre and many more.
Another aspect of the entries was the increased representation of women, with 45 in total. Without trying to draw any lines of gender or make any claims for gender-influenced art, I think that the work of these women adds a dimension to our art which can bear further investigation. The other side of this is the satisfying realisation that men still find it worthwhile to engage in art and to pursue it with great seriousness. Young men, such as Ransford Simon, Roberto Teekah, Vandyke Browne and others, are continuing to devote time, energy and effort to the pursuit of art.
Interesting developments
There were some interesting developments in this year’s competition which it would be good to note since they could presage the future of Guyana’s art. The 2019 GVACE was interesting and important for a number of reasons. Firstly, it showed the continued interest of Guyanese in creating art. The increase in the number of entries was pleasing because many persons felt that the social uncertainties and distractions would have had a negative impact on people’s interest in the competition and on things related to artistic creativity.
Secondly, there was much publicising of the events on social media, which developed this dimension of the GVACE which we first embarked on during the last (2017) competition. Social media have embraced the GVACE events and expanded the space and reach of the GVACE. Therefore, social media support adds a great dimension to the competition and creates a kind of patronage on its own. Some persons were very active in promoting the GVACE on their Facebook pages, and in highlighting the works of the winners or particular artists whose creations they admire.
Thirdly, the participation of new artists is always welcome, and there is evidence that new creators have heard about the competition and feel encouraged enough to enter it. For some of these artists, the competition presents a steep learning curve since it brings them face-to-face with the talent of other young persons who might have produced work that is superior to theirs.
There were 25 entrants who were 25 years old or younger. They submitted a total of 49 entries covering all six categories of the competition. The Promise Awardees were drawn from these entrants. As happened in 2017, the competition was so close in this category that the judges identified two young artists – Tammy Walker and Roberto Teekah.
Fourthly, the competition and exhibition revealed the state of Guyanese art. While this had been the case in the previous GVACEs, it was particularly clear this year as the artists tried to maintain their standards of creativity. Here, some thought-provoking observations arise.
To begin with, sculpture seems to be in need of a revival. Guyanese artists are masters of wood sculpture. In the 1980s, they developed a free-form expressive style, which placed emphasis on movement and flow and connection of part to part in a seamless, dynamic whole, creating and making use of both negative and positive space. This style—and variations of it—has been the mainstay of our sculpture since then. It is now not as vigorous as it once was and it takes the form of mainly small-scale work, which is sustained almost entirely by the Main Street artists. The time has come for our sculptors to find and develop new forms of sculptural expression. This may involve the use of wood or other materials.
The Lokono Artists are also numbered among our great sculptors, but Oswald Hussein seems to be the only one who is currently active. He has participated in almost all of the showings of the GVACE, winning First prize in 2017, and was competitive in sculpture this year. It is very good to see young indigenous artists appearing among the entrants. These artists follow in the steps of the Lokono and Moving Circle groups of artists, but they are not necessarily bound by the visual expressions of this group, or by the same movements of the imagination. For one thing, these newer artists are painters rather than sculptors as the overwhelming majority of the Lokono artists were. And because of their interest in painting and drawing, their talent is in photographic realism rather than in the imaginative forms created by their forerunners.
This is an interesting development and we will have to wait and see how it plays out. Perhaps the new artists have not been engaged in thinking about the past as had the earlier Amerindian artists, or perhaps the effects of the acculturation that is currently a feature of living in Guyana are now being seen.
Drawing is another art in which the influence of photographic realism is clearly seen. Many of the entrants aimed for photographic similitude and hyper-realism in their work. This is probably an influence of work seen on the internet, or, it may be a belief among our artists that verisimilitude is the epitome of what a good drawing is. There are some artists, notably Compton Babb and Walter Gobin (who won First and Second respectively in 2017) whose works, while being photo-realistic, still manage to convey a sense of story and soulfulness. They are able to capture the human spirit and emotions along with the photographic likeness. Gobin won Second place again this year.
Ceramics is similarly in need of some fresh thinking. This was the smallest of the six categories in terms of number of entries. As in sculpture, the need for new ideas and inspiration is seen in this category. Dawne Isaacs-Mc Kenzie, who won the category this year, is an experienced ceramist as is Nicholas Young, who won in 2017. We need to look to these artists and the up-coming ceramists such as Vandyke David and Staffon Williams – who both placed among the winners in 2017 (David First and Williams Third) – to move ceramics in new directions.
The flame of photography seems to have dimmed a bit. I may be wrong, but I have not seen the kind of wider support and activity in this art form that we had seen in previous years. Such support – independent groups and persons mounting exhibitions and promoting photography, photography tours, etc – is important to feed into the national competition. Also, photographers need to emerge as individual talents, with strong thematic, stylistic, genre or photographic identities.
Fine craft is on the verge of great developments. This category was created in 2017 to include work in various media, including textiles and what Guyanese traditionally call “craftwork”. However, the category was meant to lead to the raising of standards in terms of creativity, techniques, ideas, quality and the imagination, and secondly, to provide an avenue for the creation on new works which reflect synergies, and cross-media, cross-genre creations. There has been some movement in these directions over the past competitions, but much more needs to be done, as many artists still remain connected to the production of “craftwork”. There is great potential in this category, and further, there are some interesting and exciting possibilities for artists to bridge the space between this category and sculpture, which also involves the use and manipulation of single or multiple materials and media.
The late Winston Strick had done so in his use of leather, moving this material far away from its traditional Guyanese use in making belts, handbags and so on into the creation of sculpture, designs and objects that were decorative, useful, beautiful and stunningly creative but also thematically and culturally provocative.
Flow or ebb?
All-in-all, the 2019 GVACE has been a potential watershed moment in terms of emerging talent, revitalisation of various genres of artwork, new public dimensions, and potential development. The next GVACE, scheduled for 2021, will tell whether this watershed can turn into a new wave, or simply be an ebb of the tide.