Introduction
In commemoration of the renowned artist Stanley Greaves’ 90 birthday, the Sunday Stabroek will be featuring images of some of his artwork accompanied by poems written by him. This week’s sculpture SLAVE STOCK AND WHIP #2. 2018 is accompanied by a note from Mr Greaves and the poem.
SLAVE STOCK AND WHIP #2. 2018 . A construction in mahogany plank, plywood, formica, copper and nylon cord. H. 30 ins, Base 24 x 18 ins.
In February 2020 it was presented along with a painting by Dudley Charles to the OAS Art Collection in Washington DC. The presentation was organised by the Guyanese Ambassador at the time, Riyad Insanally, to celebrate Guyana’s 34th Independence Celebration.
The idea for the work came from my boyhood visits to the National Museum during the 1940’s where I would often look at the Dutch slave whip. The leather strands had copper wire pieces making them look like barbed wire. In this second work, wooden shapes making up the whip were changed. Brass pins were added to bear some resemblance to the Dutch whip. The bases for both were made in plywood covered with white formica. The work was intended to encourage thoughts about our history and where we stand today.
This work is a copy of the original made at Newcastle University in 1964 where it won a prize. In Guyana it also won First Prize in Sculpture in 1970 at a National Exhibition. It was bought for the National Collection. A while later I went to take a photograph where it was stored at the museum. All I found were two blocks from the whip. It must have been a woodworker who wanted the mahogany thinking it could be put to better purposes which could only be furniture making. If so, I hope the design was unique.
The following poem was written in response to an article in the newspapers about a child in Berbice found dead tied to a tree. Martin Carter and I spent quite a while discussing the news.
Logic was pushed aside and we thought that echoes of slavery must still exist in the psyche of someone to make them perpetuate such an act. Thoughts about how the child felt were expressed in silence.
POEM (1979)
Innocent abroad,
the sacred tree
whose fruit became
the death apple.
Blind wishes ,
by some flaw of logic,
created fatal strokes
upon that child
tied to a tree.
What must the leaves say
in the primal void
of that moment,
when man recreates
the legend of hate.
