Although George Simon (d. 2020) has passed on to the realm of the ancestors, it is good to see that his Moving Circle of Artists persists, and judging from their current/recent exhibition, it has expanded to be more reflective of his original vision. Reflecting on early conversations with Simon, the Moving Circle of Artists was intended to be a loose collective of visual artists and arts practitioners who from time to time would work together. The objective of these interactions was not exhibition-making (although that was likely) or events. Instead, the aim was to facilitate the kinds of energy exchanges and collaborations, conversations and space-sharing that can grow art practices and fuel creative output. The Moving Circle of Artists was, therefore, intended to be a nurturing environment for artists and other creatives to get work done!
The idea for the Moving Circle of Artists appeared to have taken form while Simon resided in Chad, Central Africa in the early 2000s. Despite being afforded time to paint and already with a substantial visual language, he found it challenging to make paintings. The striking cultural and geospatial differences between Chad and Guyana could not support his access to his source – Guyana. As a consequence, while the Moving Circle was intended to pivot around visual art, in the early years it pivoted around a group of young Chadian musicians whom Simon and his partner interacted with and supported. Eventually, the group migrated to Canada to further their musical ambitions, and Simon to Haiti for personal reasons. While residing in Haiti, Simon’s Circle included a Houngan who also painted. The two worked alongside each other. In 2008, the Haitian painter exhibited a selection of his work in Guyana during Carifesta X. Meanwhile, Simon has a body of work on paper from about 2005 which was informed by these interactions, his time spent in Haiti, and diverse readings on spiritual belief systems. These he exhibited at the National Gallery of Art, Castellani House. It is possible the work confounded viewers as many were visually and thematically a striking departure from his earlier work grounded in identifiable Indigenous content.
A loose network of writers, visual artists, musicians, dancers, and other creatives whose work shared an ethos to evolve their own form and content, the Moving Circle was also intended to be ethnoculturally diverse, with no specific national allegiance. However, it appears that the Moving Circle has registered in the consciousness of many as a Guyanese Amerindian/Indigenous artist and crafter collective. This should be no surprise, as the local art and craft exhibitions carrying its banner were/are hosted in September as part of the Amerindian Heritage Month Celebrations. Additionally, Simon organised the exhibitions in the 2010s to coincide with Heritage Month. If he was residing outside of Guyana, this was an ideal time to return to participate in the celebrations and to afford his appropriately themed work a receptive audience. Additionally, as an organiser, he was deliberate in showing the work of Indigenous artists and crafters who lived outside of Georgetown and its environs. Thus, while the gestures made on behalf of these individuals could be read as an extension of the effort made to nurture creative output in his home village of Pakuri (St Cuthbert’s Mission) in the 1980s, they came to be the defining feature of the Moving Circle.
In the 1980s in St Cuthbert’s Mission/Pakuri, art-making workshops for men and women were hosted by Simon with the support of ER Burrowes School of Art sculpture tutor Josefa Tamayo Valz. Stemming from the workshops, a group of exciting sculptors emerged. They, alongside Simon, came to be known as Six Lokono Artists. In addition to Simon, the group included his brother Oswald Hussein, members of his extended family Roland Taylor, Telford Taylor, and Foster Simon, and friend Lynus Clenkian. Many, if not all have work within the Guyana National Collection.
With the success of his and his fellow Lokono artists under his belt and with a natural inclination to nurture artists and related practices, the emergence of the Moving Circle was a natural evolution. The Moving Circle was an outcrop of a desire he had to extend the success of the Pakuri workshops. For a while, in the late 90s and early 2000s, Simon invested time, resources, and certainly mental energy into developing an art and aquaculture project in Pakuri. The idea was to provide traditionally built spaces for visiting artists and writers to live in a culturally relevant way while creating. Adjacent, and perhaps to bring the fishing culture closer to visitors and provide employment for villagers, he spoke of digging ponds to support aquaculture. Unfortunately, the project remains unrealised.
This month’s Moving Circle exhibition boasts Indo- and Afro-Guyanese artists alongside Indigenous and mixed-‘race’ Guyanese. This is a welcome departure from years past when the exhibitors were all Indigenous-identifying and appearing artists. As this exhibition’s organiser writes in a much-too-brief overview in the online catalogue (which was really only a booklet listing works and prices), the work in the exhibition was created by Indigenous artists and others inspired by Indigenous art and culture. Therefore, in this simple gesture of inclusion ‘Indigenous aesthetics’ and Indigenous culture, folklore, spaces, etc. are embraced as our collective patrimony. Some artists excelled, offering as much authenticity as is possible with paint on canvas, carved wood, and through other formats. Few did not. Crafters also excelled.
In the recent past, while homages to Simon at this annual exhibition may have been well-intentioned, this exhibition does not suffer annoying efforts at imitation of his aesthetic. Artists have utilised their own language whether technical strong or nascent.
Alas, along with saying the least about the exhibition, the catalogue also does not say when it closes (or even when it opened). Thus, one can only presume that as the curtains come down on Amerindian Heritage Month 2024, the curtains will come down on this exhibition as well.
