Arawak Artists Featured in Guyanese Exhibition

Georgetown, Guyana (UCTP Taino News) – Three indigenous Arawak artists were featured in a recent multi-disciplinary arts exhibition at the famed Umana Yana cultural center in the Kingston section of Georgetown, Guyana.

Sponsored by the Ministry of Youth and Sport, the exhibition entitled "Guy Arts Fiesta" brought together visual, performing, and literary arts from June 29th through July 5th. The concept for this premier event was developed by Desmond Ali, one of Guyana's outstanding sculptor/painters hailing from the Lokono Arawak Nation.

The indigenous artists featured at the Umana Yana exhibition were also members of Lokono Arawak communities. These artists included two from Pakuri Arawak Territory (St. Cuthberts), Oswald Hussein and Roland Taylor, and one from the Pomeroon River region, Valentino Stull. All three are well established artists and have worked and exhibited outside of Guyana.

In attendance at the opening ceremony were various government officials, representatives of the Guyanese Organization of Indigenous Peoples (GOIP), and United Confederation of Taino People President Roberto Mucaro Borrero.

"It is an honor to have been invited here to the exhibition opening and see first hand these exemplary indigenous artists whose works are an inspiration to our communities especially our youth" stated Borrero.

The Umana Yana was built in 1972 and is a 55-foot high cone-shaped palm-thatched shelter constructed by members of the Wai Wai tribe. No nails were used in its construction and it shelters an area of approximately 460 square meters.

Umana Yana is an indigenous expression meaning "meeting place of the people."

Sculptor’s trip shaped by fate

Oswald Hussein chisels out a
new statue based on one of
his mother's stories

Broken bones and bereavement were not enough to stop the Horniman Museum's latest artist in residence travelling 4,500 miles to share his culture. Reporter LOUISE TWEDELL spoke to South American sculptor Oswald Hussein.

TRAVELLING home by motorbike along a dusty Guyanan road on July 10, Oswald was eager to pack his belongings for his first trip to England the following day.

He was due to showcase his skills in a four-week project, Amazon to Caribbean, at the Forest Hill museum.

But before the acclaimed artist reached his home that evening his plans came to an abrupt halt after the driver of an oncoming car shunted him off the road and into a trench.

As the driver sped off Oswald pushed his bike from on top of his body and struggled back onto the road.

His right leg was broken and two fingers on his right hand were almost severed.

The father-of-two said: "I remember seeing the car coming towards me and thinking no, no, no, before I went off the road.

"My crash helmet was like a crushed eggshell and I was covered in mud."

He was taken to hospital where doctors stitched his fingers and put a cast on his leg.

The 52-year-old continued: "I just thought what will be will be.

"I have always believed things happen for a reason and thought this would be one of those times."

The reason became clear to Oswald on August 6, when his 92-year-old mother, Olive, died suddenly.

He said: "The last time I saw her I was in my cast and she started to cry. She said she was worried about me.

"She died shortly afterwards and I felt in dying she'd given me a chance to live and survive.
"If it had not been for my accident I would not have seen her before she died."

Re-booking his flights Oswald would now arrive in London on September 14, but a final obstacle needed to be removed before he could leave.

He added: "I had an appointment with the doctor to remove my cast but when I turned up there had been a mistake, so I went home and cut it off myself with a knife and a saw." Now two weeks into his project Oswald, from a small village of 1,500, is pleased to finally be sharing his work with visitors to his exhibition.

He began carving in the 1960s and has displayed his work at 10 solo exhibitions.

Oswald says his art is more than a job - it is a way of life.

His wooden sculptures, which can take between one day and four months to complete, are all based on rituals, spirits and animals held sacred by his culture.

Oswald said: "Some are based on stories my mother told me when I was younger. They were about animals, humming birds or fish and some related to the sun and rain gods which mark events in our lives."

He added: "I'm glad I made it here eventually and am able to share my culture with the world."
Visitors to the museum, in London Road, can see Oswald carving his works between 10.30am and 5pm, Wednesday to Sunday, until October 8.

For more information, visit www.horniman.ac.uk

Source: http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/indepth/features/display.var.949725.0.sculptors_trip_shaped_by_fate.php

Arawak Artist In Residence At the Horniman Museum

By Kate Smith

Two years ago the Horniman's intrepid head curator, Hassan Arero went on a collecting mission to South America - to visit the rainforest tribes of Guyana who are descended from the earliest settlers of the Caribbean. Many of his purchases have ended up in the Horniman's popular exhibition Amazon to Caribbean, including work by Guyanese sculptor Oswald Hussein.

The Horniman have now invited Oswald Hussein to visit the museum, and make more of his wooden sculptures in the main hall. Surrounded by lathes and hammers, he says he is undisturbed by the rush of school parties past his bench, and can simultaneously keep a vision in his head of the natural forms which influence his work. His sculptures are abstract, but represent the whole experience of his life (recently traumatic) and a description of the surroundings of his home. Guyana is the only English-speaking country in South America.

Hussein is from the Arawak tribe and speaks Lokono - which predates the arrival of Europeans in Latin America - but he says that all children learn English at school. In the current generation there were fears that Lokono would die out, but there has been a revival in the language in recent years. As the Amazon to Caribbean exhibition records, the Arawak tribes have been threatened with extinction for some time. Once numbering in the millions, their numbers were depleted first by the Spanish invasion, and then by the Caribs. Arawaks have no tradition of war, which made them especially vulnerable.

Hussein tells us that he was prepared for London to some extent by the British Army base close to his home where he grew up - soldiers from the UK do jungle training in the area. But he was not expecting the density of buildings in London - "you can't see the horizon at all" - and he says the regulation of life by clocks also seems alien - "usually I need a watch about once a year when I go to see the doctor". He is also struck by the impersonality of London "no-one looks at you on the bus or the tube". Perhaps nothing reveals the subtle differences in culture so much as the interview process. Faced by a series of questions, he weaves seamlessly between his life and work - his hallucinations and dreams - the importance of talking to posterity through his sculptures. His great openness makes his conversation difficult to pare down into soundbites.

He tells us about Arawak beliefs about avoiding death. "You have to be a shapeshifter" he says, changing form to avoid capture by the spirits. Hussein has recently had a close escape: days before he was first expected at the Horniman in April, he was knocked off his motorbike by a hit and run driver in a remote spot. Aided by a passer by reviving him with sugar water, he was carried to hospital and eventually pulled through. Shortly afterwards his mother died; she had been an enormous influence on his work and was, he says, almost as old as Horniman Museum itself. His sculptures always begin with a slice of treetrunk, and its dimensions dictate what the sculpture can show. Some of his completed pieces have most of the wood sculpted away, leaving fine strands, others (like the one shown above) are chunky and substantial. Oswald has yet to see the Amazon to Caribbean exhibition and his own work in it - though he seems to compare himself to an anxious father outside a delivery room "You know the baby is there. You don't have to go and look yet."

You can see Oswald Hussein making wooden sculptures Wednesday - Sunday at the Horniman until October 8th. Afterwards his work will become part of the handling collection at the Horniman Museum. Visitors may also like to check out the museum's Aquarium - recently refitted to a Victorian design. It includes some scenes that closely reflect the Guyanese jungle, and give a little context to the Amazon to Caribbean exhibition, which continues until January.


Lokono artist Oswald Hussein
carving in London

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Featured Venue:
Horniman Museum & Gardens