My work is my way of yelling to the ancestors and my past that ‘I have not forgotten you, I have not abandoned you and I am trying to find you!’
- Curtis Talwst Santiago
Capsule Shanghai is delighted to announce ‘Play A Mas’, a solo booth of new and recent work by Curtis Talwst Santiago, curated by Megan Connolly for the 2023 edition of Art Brussels. The gallery’s booth (#6D-29) will spotlight the artist’s multidisciplinary practice and ongoing research around Trinidadian Carnival. This is the first time Curtis Talwst Santiago and Capsule Shanghai are exhibiting in Brussels.
‘Play A Mas’ or masquerade is an invitation to explore the start of the Carnival parade, J’Ouvert, through the artist’s diasporic lens. During J’Ouvert, bodies and faces are painted, and revelers dress up as Jab Jabs or devil characters who can be simultaneously frightening and joyous. Meditating on the multifaceted Jab Jab character and revisiting familial stories about Carnival’s traditions, Santiago explores the theme of ancestry and the difficulty to access lost and misconstrued histories. Through drawing, painting, and sculpture, the artist combines personal experience and historical research with imagination to consider how knowledge is lost between consensual and forced migration.
Split between Canada and trips to Trinidad as a child, Santiago’s practice is rooted in his lived experiences and presented through a riot of hues, bold figures, and energy. With one foot in expressionism and the other in figurative imagery, Santiago deftly moves between powerful washes of color, precise lines, and meticulous details to bring his carnival characters alive. Dancing figures organically move through the dreamlike space in quasi-theatrical processions that recall the historical painting Carnaval en Flandre by James Ensor. Santiago successfully draws viewers into his realm by creating confident and powerful worlds that hold the tension between the macroscopic and microscopic.
The booth is anchored by Gospel According to Lord Blakie “Steel Band Clash”, a 160 x 250 cm canvas of carnival goers dancing and drumming. The title is inspired by Lord Blakie’s 1950s song “Steel Band Clash” paying homage to one of the greatest exponents of the calypso art-form. At first glance, the scene appears jovial, but upon closer inspection, a darkness permeates the canvas as the Jab Jabs encroach upon the joyful revelers. The wooden frame is hand carved with Trinidadian and Carnival imagery, and intentionally charred to resonate the traditions of sugar cane farming, specifically the burning of the cane fields to make harvesting easier. Accompanying the work is an audio recording from the artist's home in Germany. Santiago captures a conversation between himself and his parents in their kitchen at Christmas-time while preparing a Trinidadian meal and reminiscing about Carnival. In the background you can hear the artist's young son playing amongst the adults' interactions.
To create a carnival atmosphere, a procession of Jab Jab portraits is installed on the outer wall of the booth and a row of red, yellow, blue, and green carnival flag paintings hang above. A series of dioramas made from reclaimed jewelry boxes become carnival reliquaries where dreams and nightmares coexist. Welcome to Santiago’s ‘Play A Mas’, where moments of truth versus fiction and joy versus trauma intersect.
Text: Megan Connolly
