Crichlow provides solace through art

During the pandemic, there has been so much fear that artist Kenwyn Crichlow wanted to provide some solace with his ten-piece solo exhibition.

Solace has been on display at Y Art Gallery in Woodbrook from March 5 and ends on March 26.

Crichlow said people’s geography, socio-economic background and other experiences shape their context, perspective, and consciousness and therefore, how they experience art.

“Art is a visual thing. Some people only want to see what’s on the surface but really, everything we look at communicates a feeling.”

The purpose of his art is to touch that feeling that causes individuals to think and act, and incite empowerment, love, pleasure, identity, joy, sorrow, freedom and more.

He said part of the history of black people in the Caribbean is the desire to be free. It is a powerful feeling that changed the world.

The discussion of freedom has evolved over the decades. Most recently, with the pandemic and the millions of deaths it caused worldwide, there has been a lot of conspiracy theories, misinformation and panic. So the discussion has turned to freedom from fear.

“Solace is a collection of visual lyrics, offered for a consideration of their necessity, imagination, and beauty, premised on the idea that freedom from fear is not a given.

“So I decided to dedicate what I thought would be the next few months, to creating paintings that communicate the feeling of optimism and hope. So you could look away from the dread reality and get those feelings that affirm our humanity and make us enjoy living in a community.”

He started painting the collection at the end of 2019, around the time covid19 started to spread around the globe. He said the world experienced pandemics before and while they may have destroyed ancient societies, he believes science will help today’s society survive.

He stressed that his work is not a commentary on covid19 or any of the situations that emerged since the beginning of the pandemic. Instead, they look beyond it and tried to provide “consciousness and feelings” with which people could relate and find solace.

Crichlow told Sunday Newsday as the painting process went on, there was a spirituality to the process which he compared to the way some Christians read the book of Psalms in the Bible for comfort through difficulties.

“So people read the Psalms for solace and my paintings are a way of finding solace as well, for me and hopefully for others.”

He said while he is not a “church-going” person, often there is a spiritual presence that he can feel which finds its way into his paintings.

“I am lucky to be able to make paintings. I’ve always thought that painting has a spiritual element that I know nothing at all about. It is bigger than all of us. In the process of it you see the painting beginning to project feelings that, very often, I didn’t intend. It’s like it has its own life.”

Crichlow has been exhibiting his work locally and internationally since 1981 with his last solo exhibition being Living Ground in 2015.

Solace is an exhibit of ten paintings of oil on canvas. But there are ten more in the collection which will be shown at a later date.

“Yasmin (Hadeed, owner of Y Art Gallery) was very careful in the installation in trying not to crowd the gallery so that viewers can engage with the work.”

He said he likes the feeling of oil paint and the way they could be used, thick or thinned. They also take a long time to dry, offering him the flexibility to make changes to his work.

All the paintings in the collection are the same sized squares but every piece is different. He used different techniques, handled the paint in different ways – some strokes were vigorous while others were soft, some of the paintings are very textural and some look 3-dimensional – creating a unique look and feel for each.

He compares his paintings to jazz or ramajay as they started with a colour or a vague idea that flowed into an abstract piece.

“All of that is really to craft a language of making images, a way of speaking in metaphors using pastels and cool colours that create deeper feelings of hope, reflection, comfort, inspiration, solace.”

"Colour can soothe, energise and inspire, its power originating in primal forces that drive every painterly means at my disposal for creating a space in which marks and blobs, harmonies and contrasts, methods of layering and composing aspire to enter the public discourse of place, time, and the business of art."