THE BRITISH HIGH COMMISSION has made a significant contribution to the arts, education and sport in Barbados over the last decade.
The commission was proud to present A-MERGE – a joint exposition of the extraordinary collections of three outstanding contemporary Barbadian artists: Allison Bohne, Ahmad Boodhoo and the late Aubrey Cummings at the Clock Tower Hall, the Garrison, from September 16 to September 18.
Bohne enjoys experimenting with the “pen and ink” medium. She has quite an affinity for landscapes, but her true love is abstracts.
For her, nature is not landscape or portrait, however. Rather, it’s the essential dynamism of our visual senses.
She sees A-MERGE as a success, and the actualisation of her greatest dream.
“I plan to use the exposure gained from A-merge as a springboard for further works, promising a quality which will make my name synonymous with fine art in every household,” she said.
Cummings believed that to look and to see are as different as the night and the day. The collection on exhibit represents the last and most treasured expressions of his life as an accomplished painter.
Few knew this side of Aubrey, for he was the archetypal solo Caribbean balladeer. The picaresque double entendre of calypso is present in all his pieces.
At the exhibition, his son Damiano Cummings commented: “Seeing my father’s work on display at an exhibition of that magnitude was special. Not mainly because of the quality work he has but because a lot of people knew him as a musician and not an artist . . . I know for sure if he was still around to be a part of all of this he would have definitely brought more flavour with him.”
Boodhoo is currently serving as the vice-president of the Barbados Art Counsel. He has also explored his love for the art of music, working over the years with the National Cultural Foundation as a judge for the Party Monarch competition.
An artist from the early 1970s (starting with the People’s Art Movement), Boodhoo said he likes “to capture history so that the moments live forever”. Known to many for his intense paintings during that period, Boodhoo has resurfaced onto the arts scene with a new outlook – that of the photo artist.
“What I do as an artist is I paint with the camera, things that you know and you see and try to take it the way that you don’t see it,” he stated.
“My inspiration comes from the people in this country, the hardship, history, my life towards that history and contributing to it . . . just looking around, seeing everyday life and trying to find the beauty that is still there despite all of the chaos we go through. As an artist, I want to showcase that,” he added. (PR)
