RUST MUSEUM

For one of my Trinity Program final projects, I chose to create a series of photos referring to my experience in Trinidad to teach someone else about it. I've decided to mount these photos on the rust orange wall as a sort of learning museum for the show. Some of the captions have more of my personality than others, but I tried to keep them objective so they are not relative to my one opinion or experience. This is a timeless museum. ENJOY!

House Project Updates

1. Floor has been stripped and waxed

A huge thanks goes out to our cleaning lady for making the floors beautiful again! It was quite a task that took two days to complete, the kitchen and nook in one day then the entire classroom the next. It was also a task to keep people from walking on the floors for a reasonable amount of time. Of course, I dont want to (and sometimes simply can't) deny users from entering the building... but I tried! As of today, the floors look great. I believe they will get a second coat of polish at the beginning of this coming week. Actually, I wonder if regular floor polish can be used on the wooden stairs too.....

2. Finally got window and door treatments

Thanks to Nikki's willingness and Jude (our driver) for his patience, the classroom and main entrance door now have curtains. I thought it best to look for something light colored and light-weight for the classroom, but grand entrance curtains for the doors. I also found some door beads on sale for the kitchen entrances, in place of thin curtains like were there before. Curtains add a nice touch of home for a place so institutional, but I am no expert.

3. Learning how to make captions on photos

This photo (credits to Nicolette Laume) pasted into Photoshop with great quality and I only need to work on my effiiciency in adding captions now. I'm not sure if I want the text box to appear around the photo, but if I do choose to do that, I'll also put a matching black border around the image itself. Hopefully, I will be able to matte all the images. These are for the rust orange wall, to highlight some features of the program and the country.

The thing is.... I dont want the wall to just be about my experience, but to be mostly universal so it is timeless on the wall. Every generation can view and learn something about what I found in the house, or what we did this semester, etc. So I need to collect photos from other students to compliment my own and make this wall more 'well rounded' and complete. Everyone has exams and final papers and presentations, therefore my requests for .jpgs will be the easiest to forget. I'd rather not sacrifice the quality of the project by waiting. I've already made the group aware that I'm looking for photos, but I havent received any donations yet. I may need a backup plan. I will do my best to give credits where they are due and seek photos for these topics (here are just a few): Pitch Lake, Tobago, Native fruits, Alice Yard, Liliput Theatre, 3 Canal, Leroy Clarke, Maracas Beach, UWI. I may also call upon photos from Andrea's maxi project and Nikki's presenation on boundaries.

4. Official show date

We are required to do a group presentation for Tony Hall's "Festival and Drama" course before the end of the semester. Originally we were to present on May 5th but given the crunch for time with exams and papers, he approved us to move the presentation date to May 12th. Our presentation is going to involve building an installation and live presentation for an audience. With the complexity of my project involving aesthetics, furniture arrangement, and aura, I dont feel that it's a good idea to have the hous opening on the 12th anymore and have been contemplating the 11th or the 13th, but no later or earlier. I'm aiming for the 11th) Of course, I will still be participating in the Alice Yard exhibition on the 12th with Nikki and Andrea to have all of our projects at one moment in time. I want to do an installation to represent the interior design process, but we'll see how it happens as time cruntches.

Adventure Update

In late April, the group had an opportunity to spend the day with Leroy Clarke at his homes/studios in Port of Spain and Aripo. I was very inspired by our encounter with him and the amazing interior creativity in his living spaces (which also act as museums). Click the image above to view photos of this majestic adventure...

Red Band Maxi: A Reflection

Red Band Maxi: The Multimedia component of the installation.

My event went fairly smoothly on Monday. I had an unfortunate hiccup when I tried to have my photographs re-printed in St. James due to an unwilling and unknowledgeable supervisor who made the entire process hell, but eventually, I got the prints I needed and scurried over to Alice Yard to set up. Sean Leonard met me there to set up the projector, and shortly after I arrived, Shannon, my maxi driver, arrived with my mobile "gallery." It was a very tight squeeze but Shannon masterfully backed his maxi into Alice Yard the way I had envisioned. With the help of my mother, father, and brother (who all flew in to visit and to see this event), I began mounting my photographs inside the Maxi while Sean found a mixing board andsub woofer for the sound of my video component. Turns out, the Maxi had fewer rows of seats than I originally thought, so I had some extra prints. I ended up putting one print of an interesting ceiling on the ceiling, a print of the inside of this maxi in the rear of this maxi, and put a few prints around the outside of the maxi.

The general feel though, I think, was still achieved, as people had to move about within and around the maxi to view all the photographs. I was also pleased with how the space formed around my piece. Once you walked up the Alice Yard driveway, you were met head-on with this big Maxi and you had to walk around it to get through the space.

If you walked to the right of the Maxi, you would immediately see the projected video on the far wall of the white box. I liked that you couldn't look at the Maxi without hearing the audio of the video, nor could you watch the video without spatially orienting yourself around the Maxi.
I was, however, disappointed that none of my Maxi drivers showed up. A lot of them had told me that they were going to try to come, but that it would be difficult because their attendance would involve skipping out on several hours of work, and many of them simply can't afford to do so. Regardless, I think the event was successful. At the end of the day, I think everyone did end up leaving there with a different perspective of the Maxis -- and hopefully, a greater appreciation for them, as well.

I've posted the images that I printed, as well as photographs of the set-up and the event itself on Flickr. Many of the images of the installation are courtesy of my multi-talented brother, Matthew Wise.

I really enjoy the images my brother produced. I find that in the flattened 2-Dimensional photo representation of the 3-Dimensional world, the 2-D photographs almost become 3-D and create a visual window into another world, as if there are several realities occurring simultaneously within the Maxi at my event.

Security: A Show at Alice Yard

I will be showing a combination of photographs and stop motion videos, constructing my own ongoing relationship and thoughts about security and boundaries in both it's physical manifestations, and social manifestations.

The show will be held at Alice Yard, at 6:30pm on the 12th of May.

Drawing the Lines

I’ve been working on creating interior image outlines from real photos through Illustrator. It amazes me how time consuming graphic work can be when trying to be accurate. These drawings have been helpful in deciding color choices for the space, but also in giving me practice in this line of design work because interior designers and architects must spend a lot of time drawing and making models before actually altering the space. The hardest part is being both the designer and the main laborer. I don’t want to get too theoretical/ideal in my designs because I can only do so much manual labor between classes, but I also don’t want to jump into physical decisions before taking time to analyze my reasoning. It’s not easy, but I am not giving up on this project. It is something I feel needs to be done. So a huge thanks to Nathaniel for continuing to work with me and be patient as I learn how to use these programs. The above images are still in process, but looking good, if I may say so.

While painting the staircase the other day, the program director expressed her concerns with my finishing the painting portion in time for the show. She mentioned that the program hires a ‘painting crew’ (one guy and maybe a friend) to paint the building interior. I had no idea a ‘painting crew’ was even an option! Now, I suppose I could blame myself for not asking the right questions, but for some reason she got the impression that I needed to do the work on my own because it’s a project… as if hiring a painting crew would be cheating. Having a crew would actually have been a great investment a few weeks ago because painting large rooms with tall walls was very strenuous and time consuming. The painting portion would have been done long ago! Now, please excuse my rant because I am not looking to place blame anywhere. Contrarily, I enjoy painting interiors- it has just been a struggle on time management and physical exhaustion (especially because I dance twice a week and we are in overtime to prepare for the show in Queen’s Hall on May 21-23). So by time the crew arrived on Friday, I already painted the bottom half of the classroom, most of the poles, and the bars on the windows. In addition, I’ve finished the main entrance doors, painted some tables, and scoped out curtain prices from a local discount store. (Photo below is courtesy of Nathaniel Chambers)

Next on my “To Do List” is to curate the accent wall which we call “rust orange.” For one of the Trinity program courses, the final project is to create something that will teach someone else about our individual experience in Trinidad. So I’m thinking to do photos with captions of various people, places, and objects I’ve become accustom to- then give them all matching frames. I also want to include the pieces of costume, dabla, and other object findings from the house for the wall and give those captions too. It shall be a museum wall for discoveries and learning.

Inspiration for arranging things on the wall and when I curate the physical space will be drawn from experiences at Alice Yard, in helping with set up for the “Proximities” exhibit. The exhibit showcased artist work regarding personal space, gender discussions, and family influence on how they view identity. The videos were shown on various nights and projected onto various surfaces for presentation. It was interesting to watch the process of presenting projections in a yard space. Where will the best angle be? What material can it be projected on? Can the videos be viewed at the same time? Should the people in the video be life-sized or larger-than-life? How much volume is too much sound? What view of the Yard can be seen from the street? How close do we want people to get to the screen and what is the impact of proximity on the viewer? So many questions and only one way to find out: trial and error. It was a long night. Yet, the Alice Yard exhibit was a success.

On another note, I bought a two gallon bucket of Off White paint because I thought the crew was also going to paint the upstairs hallway and office and balcony, but more labor means more cost so that did not happen. I tried to return the paint on Saturday around 3pm because I can always use the money for something else, but apparently the shop closed at 1pm. I truly believe everything happens for a reason and now that the first floor is completed I have some time to consider painting the upstairs hallway and parts of the balcony railing. I really wish I could do something about the flooring up there (like repaint that too) but I have to draw the labor line somewhere soon.