Kinetic Mas Camp hosts Kieshia Cooper's first solo exhibit

Kieshia Cooper has been an artist all her life, but will host her first solo exhibition from March 29-April 14 at Kinetic Mas Camp, Alberto Street, Woodbrook.

The exhibition is called An Introduction to Electromagnetic Art.

She has been part of many joint exhibitions over her 30-something years, but this is her first solo show, thanks, in part, to the large band’s mas camp.

Its bandleader Peter Samuel wants to expand the use of the camp throughout the year. He hopes it morphs into a space known not just as the home of the Kinetic Mas band, but as an incubator for young, upcoming and unknown artistes.

He said, “From 2020, just before covid, when we got the mas camp we decided we had to do something with it outside of Carnival and, that way, if we can do something with the camp, we keep it vibrant.”

The space’s lighting and layout already had the set-up of an art gallery, he said.

This made it much easier to help Cooper host her first exhibition.

“From talking to artists, at all levels, if you are a young, upcoming artist and you want exposure, it is almost impossible to go to one of the more established galleries.”

Samuel said he understood galleries need to do this, as they make their money by selling art for a commission.

“If you have someone coming in and you don’t have a name or a following, you have nothing to get. I have heard the plight of a lot of young artists wanting to showcase their work, and it was something we thought about.”

Cooper and Samuel met on the night of the Senior Kings and Queens semifinals at the Queen’s Park Savannah this Carnival.

Their meeting reads like a cosmic rom-com; she liked the band’s King costume – Creatio Ex Nihilo – The Eternal Source of Light Divine – and told Samuel; they spoke about art and mas; and he invited her to show her work at the camp.

The second-placed King costume reminded Cooper of her own artistic work.

Samuel hopes this initial step by the camp will be seen by young artists – poets, writers, artists, even mixologists – as a sign that it is open to fostering creativity.

He said it would not be taking a commission from what Cooper sells: “What we are charging her is just to offset electricity and the running of the space.”

Cooper, who has exhibited one-off pieces at different galleries over the years, thinks her first solo exhibition is happening at exactly the right time.

In addition, it opens on her birthday, March 29, and closes on her daughter Mya Archie’s birthday, April 14.

Largely self-taught, Cooper did art at St Dominic’s Convent, San Juan, and immediately after leaving school, began working at the Barataria art gallery Studio 66.

There she was exposed to the business and skill of art such as buying and selling, and stage and set design. She had support and guidance from the late artist LeRoy Clarke and veterans Makemba Kunle and Bill Trotman.

Cooper worked there for close to four years and, while there, began showing her work in joint exhibitions. She told Newsday proudly that all the work she showed over the years had sold.

Cooper uses acrylic – her main medium – and charcoal.

Her work is heavily informed by her spiritualism and research into numerology, astrology, electromagnetic waves, tones, vibrations and frequencies.

“Over the years I have made a record of my personal journey, because some interesting things happened, on a spiritual aspect, that allowed me to realise that each decision made, or position I was placed in and people I was introduced to, was perfectly aligned.”

She said in 2006 she was at home alone and her late father, Albert Fernando, told her to get a DVD to keep her company (a DVD was a digital video disc that stored data such as movies).

She got a documentary called The Spirit World, which, she said, changed her life. She described watching it and having an “aha” moment.

“That documentary allowed me to understand the difference between the physical plane and the spiritual plane,” she said.

Cooper was fascinated, wanted to know more and began researching it. When her father was "transitioning," she saw that as an opportunity to create a bridge to him as well as the spiritual/astral plane. She believes the energies of people like her late father guide her.

That is why sound waves, frequencies and paint form part of her creative process.

A 2019 article by Christopher Baird on Accessscience.com defines electromagnetism as the physical interaction among electric charges. The electromagnetic field can be static; slowly charging or form waves, which are generally known as light and obey the laws of optics.

Cooper said there were no earlier opportunities for her to have a solo exhibition. It was actually the covid19 pandemic that opened the door to this first show.

For two years, Cooper focused on running her own small printery. Then, just before the pandemic, her business shut.

“I remember I closed right before covid, and while we were locked in at home, these creative ideas came to me. I was not painting prior to that; I did not paint for about two years. No inspiration. No nothing.

“Then covid came and these ideas were flowing.”

She did not realise how many pieces she had created during that time. But when an artist friend visited her shortly after, he was “blown away” at the amount of work she had done.

“Then he said, ‘Listen, you have enough work to have your own show. ...When he said it, it clicked and I said, ‘Yes, why not?’”

She began preparing for this exhibition.

Cooper has plans to hold more exhibitions after this, and hopes the sale, from this one will help her pay to attend the Visitor Center Art Camp, Ewen, Michigan, US, in July.