Jackie Hinkson’s mural Band of the Year: A snapshot

LOCAL ARTIST Donald “Jackie” Hinkson’s street exhibition, the mural Band of the Year, is a snapshot of the past year, but also a testament to art itself.

The Mas Now Start is the theme of his newest piece, separated into two panels, which was done over the last six months. On huge panels covering the walls of Fisher Avenue, St Ann’s, Port of Spain, he continued the flow of the story of life, using Carnival imagery to represent local and international issues.

Hinkson, 82, said a lot of people got caught up in what the individual elements represent but that was not his main concern when he was painting. He was concerned about the visual language like where to put a certain shape, how deep to make a tone and how to break the rhythm of the verticals.

“Because the truth is, ten years from now, five years from now, one year from now, nobody’s going to know what that’s referring to or what the minister said.

“So if the work is to be successful as a painting, the strength has to be in the basic visual language of light, tone, colour, movement, contrast, rhythm. Of course, the story plays a role as well, but that isn’t what is going to make it good work.”

He said the strength of a work of art could not depend on the surface story.

He gave the example of Guernica by Pablo Picasso, which was based on the Spanish civil war. He said it survived because of the composition, the manipulation of light, the creation of mood and other arty things, not because Picasso was saying “war is a terrible thing,” which was obvious to everyone.

Instead, he said Picasso captured the terror of war in a universal way which moved people, and so the work would survive.

Many of the elements of Hinkson’s piece was him having fun with personal references, general observations, jokes, satire, serious issues, double entendre and other mediums. bit it all came down to the idea that all the world was a stage and life was a Carnival band that continued every year.

At one end of the piece was King AI and Queen Climate as AI and climate change were dominant in people’s mind. King AI was a robotic figure, and climate was a female figure with a cyclone whose eye was on her head.

Then there were minor characters like Mr Stats, which was a reference to the tendency of people in authority to quote figures and statistics when all people wanted to know what was being done about any given situation.

There was also a seemingly naked man with cardboard box around his groin reading “Demolish me nah!”

Hinkson recalled seeing a vagrant in Port of Spain dressed similarly. The box was his outfit and his home. It reminded him of the government recent decisions to evict people and demolish their homes.

Another character was a man with tin and frying pans hung about his body with one pan reading “Pan in Danger.” The words were the name of a song by Dennis “The Merchant” Williams. Hinkson recalled that in 1985, when the song was released, he played a J’Ouvert that looked very much like the character he drew.

Also part of the mural was a newspaper headline that read, “JUS SOE?” referring to the state of emergency the country was in, a new alphabet with A for abuse and Z for zammy, as well as references to the change in the TT Coat of Arms, US President Donald Trump and the proliferation of social media sites and its influence on language.

One of the things Hinkson felt he had to include was the cow mas. Usually, the character dress in a cow head, covered the body with leaves and charged at spectators. For his cow mas, instead of leaves he used the words held, detained, questioned, custody, released, suspended, grand charge and next?, and attached to a chain held by the cow were the letters E-R-L.

“That is a reference to the situation with Erla (Harewood-Christopher, Commissioner of Police). I’m not judging it. I’m not saying Erla is right or wrong, guilty or anything. I’m just saying that is the kind of mas that goes on in everyday life. Up to now, we don’t know what’s going on with her.”

One first-time visitor expressed surprise at how extensive Hinkson’s mural was, as he did not know it was one continuous piece of work which was added to every year. He thanked Hinkson for his contribution to local art and the fact it was free to view, and said he would be back next year.