Features
Janelle De Souza
Although based in Atlanta, Georgia, artist Wendell R Smith wants to be known as a TT artist.
So, for his first solo exhibition in more than a decade, he has returned home to present Reclamation.
Reclamation has approximately 30 mixed media pieces that include sculptural work, paintings and drawings. He worked in pastel, oil, acrylic and water colors, as well as charcoal and canvas.
He said that having his first solo exhibition in more than ten years at TT is emotional for him because the world has changed a lot since he moved to the US in 1997. But he believes that everyone has a responsibility to the country where did they come from?
“I feel like I’m coming home to make my small contribution to the greater good of the nation. There is a sense of humility, sharing my vision for TT.”
“I never thought I would ever emigrate, so I was caught off guard. I feel like a loser. I get jealous when I see people at home creating, working and showing. Finally I said to myself, ‘From now on I will have an exhibition at least every two years in Trinidad.’ It’s always been my dream.”
He said his last TT show was in 1997 before he left for graduate school in the US. Smith said the exposure outside the Caribbean was not the same. He wants to see what happens when people within his culture see his work. He wants to hear back from the people whose stories he’s telling.
“I’m bringing my experiences ‘back to the village’, coming with a different perspective in terms of the space I’ve left, the experiences I’ve had and how I’ve been able to look at my culture, traditions and society from a distance.”
He said that not living in TT made him an observer, which changed the way he looked at the culture. He no longer took her for granted and bonded further with her.
Smith told Sunday Newsday that the exhibition is “a story in the making” – the journey in trying to make sense of his experiences as an artist, as a Trinidadian, as a Caribbean person and as a citizen of the world.
The work is based on history, as he believes that only when people understand where they started from can they move forward and make something of themselves. The exhibition is also an opportunity to give back to TT and give hope to its people.
“We’ve been through so much trauma lately that if we could just sit down and create beauty and art, that would be great. I think this is when our society really needs art and creative expression.
“And with everything that’s going on right now with crime, I just feel like this is the time, more than anything else, for us to go to the past. Because it was in the past that people understood community, that people had a sense of caring for each other. So I find my solace in the past… Certainly not in the traumatic past.”
He said that many of the pieces have human figures which he tried to give personalities to give a sense of realism and individualism. They reflect a larger cultural and historical framework with some images being characters taken from folklore, Christian narrative or ancestral imagery.
For example, some pieces allude to First Peoples, colonization, slavery, pre-independence, and Indian and Chinese migration. They show how all kinds of people occupy the small space of the TT, creating “an interesting dynamic”.
Although steeped in the past, the pieces also hold personal meaning for him.
“There is something that unites all of this in my work, and it is Carnival. Carnival is really the expression of everything for me. Because, growing up, I didn’t go to museums. When I saw the visuals, it was carnival. I saw colors in the street.
“So a lot of my work is about that reference to carnival, to performance, to movement, to the drama of color. It is about the way in which Carnival expresses the unity and complexity of TT culture and, by extension, Caribbean culture.”
Originally from San Juan, Smith began drawing at a young age and his parents encouraged his skills. When they realized he had potential, they sent him to art workshops and camps.
Initially, he did not do art for O-Levels but, when he went to do his A-levels at what was then Barataria Comprehensive High School, now Barataria South High School, he met art teacher Norris Iton, of which made him think seriously. about art. So he decided to do his O and A levels in art at the same time. He challenged himself and began to develop his voice.
“A-Levels taught me that art was in context and had all these stories attached to it, all the different techniques and styles. I started really learning the language of art and understanding it in an academic way.”
At UWI, St Augustine he majored in literature and creative arts because, at the time, while there were many art courses, there was no visual arts degree. However, the program was in the process of development and every year the number of art courses increased. He said that by the time he reached his third year, he had taken so many studio courses that it was as if he had also majored in art.
“Ken Crichlow became my mentor and, for the next three years, I worked closely with him. It was then that the idea of being an artist really crystallized and I started to think about what I would do with it – a hobby or a profession where I could make a significant contribution.”
By the time he completed his degree, he had a substantial portfolio of work. He was proud to have been trained by Caribbean artists and that the work he studied supported thoughts and ideas from a Caribbean perspective, when most artists at the time had to go abroad to study at tertiary level.
After graduation, he taught art and literature at the Convent of St. Joseph, San Fernando. He then applied for and was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to pursue studies in studio arts at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia. In 1999, he graduated from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in painting.
“I credit UWI and the evolution of that art program for providing me with sound training to move forward and compete at an international level.”
He married after graduate school but returned to TT to complete a two-year residency and taught critical thinking at UWI. He returned to Savannah College to teach and work as an artist based in Atlanta.
Since then he had his daughter Anaya Smith, 20, who is now studying art at university, divorced, applied for and received an O-1 or “genius visa” and worked as an artist in the US.
There, he did a series of residencies, exhibitions, traveled and wrote for grants, many of which he received.
“It was quite challenging. There are opportunities, but you have to look for those opportunities. It takes tremendous work and effort, because in America the competition is fierce. But I made it work for me through grants, residencies and fellowships, and of course other funding to host exhibitions.”
He returned to school and, in 2014, earned a doctorate in education from Walden University in Minnesota. There he focused on research into curriculum design for Caribbean higher education in the arts to meet the needs of the global arts market as he wanted to know how tertiary education could advance the cultural industries including music, theatre, film and different types of art. with the aim of further economic development.
“I have always been interested in how creativity and culture, including Carnival, in TT can translate into economic wealth. I was interested in how Caribbean artists could become part of this curiosity that the world had about art.”
Reklamation, the exhibition, is currently running at ThinkArtworkTT Studio, Cipriani Boulevard, Port of Spain.
