Beauty among the bullets in ‘Laventy’
ONE of Mexico’s most celebrated contemporary artists and 20 Laventille youths have painted a stunning and inspiring mural on the walls of Coconut Growers Association (CGA) in Laventille.
Wendel McShine, a son of TnT who lives in Mexico City, returned home to make his mark in a real, visible way. Shine, as he’s known, is an underground fine artist, a master of animation and spray paint who has worked for the likes of adidas and whose work is sought after by collectors around the world.
He is spearheading Art Connect, an urban art project sponsored by CGA and Abovegroup Ogilvy, that allows art students of Success Laventille Secondary School to inspire their community through their art.
“Art Connect came into existence by me wanting to give back to my country by contributing my time and professional skills to a personal cause — which is helping making Trinidad a much safer and beautiful place to be in,” says Shine, who grew up in Tunapuna and La Horquetta, one of 10 children. “After all, art connects people to their higher self.
“At the beginning of the year, I had a very interesting meeting with Alex Smailes of Abovegroup Ogilvy about doing a project that would bring what I do to the community. I then went back to my home in Mexico City, did my research and the project was born.”
First, Shine made an audio-visual presentation to more than 40 students about urban contemporary art in Mexico City and around the world. He then conducted interviews with each child, to find out more of their story and to give him an idea of which ones would best fit the project. All of the interviews were recorded. “This is my signature approach when working on projects like these,” explained Shine.
At the end of that very long day he reviewed the footage and selected his 20 team members based on their pas-on their passion, curiosity, team spirit and desire to achieve. The next day, Shine set. The next day, Shine set off on a journey through the streets of Laventille to conjure up an inspirational mural that would jump-start the workshops. “After all,” he pointed out, “in order to truly teach, one has to be able to inspire and open up the doorways to the imagination.”
The concept for the mural was simple: there are two sides to every story; so he painted a character to illustrate the story of love and community togetherness through a series of surrealistic and symbolic visual metaphors.
The house on the solar plexus of the sleeping figure represents the solemnity of the area; the heart outside of him is a symbol for us extending love to each other; and to bring that together Shine painted the heads and faces to reflect aspects of our carnival when it was truly creative.
Having shown the potential of painting dramatic, thought-provoking art, Shine then started intensive indoor and outdoor workshops over two weeks with the youths. The following week, the teens executed their visions on the 80ft of wall space donated by the CGA.
Shine allowed the mural to happen organically since his aim was to create a platform for the children to investigate their surroundings and their own imaginations. The budding artists explained their concepts to him. “And it all breaks down to a love of all the nature and beautiful elements that make up the place they go to school in,” Shine said. “Look around and you will notice that Laventille is full of nature, a prime location anywhere in the wider world and we should take care of it.
There were two kids in particular by the names of Saleif and Cherise who are very passionate about art. Saleif loves to create carnival costumes, so he and Cherise teamed up to begin an exploration of their character Midnight Rubber.” Shine says all of the children are very talented, “but I have my eye on Saleif”. There are still two more modules to complete the project, one of which is an animation workshop.
He also invited a local illustrator to paint with the group. “You know, my belief is that all artists must come together and share freely, especially in a small place like Trinidad,” he said.
The entire process was documented by award-winning film-maker Miquel Galofré of Barcelona, Spain. Shine calls it, “History in the making, the turning point of the future of art and community” and he is pleased that it was captured for archival purposes, adding to the rich legacy of Trinidad and the region by extension.
I would like to make a correction…it's "Midnight Robber" to the author/editor. Please it is very important for children to know the history and historical contexts pertaining to carnival. The "Midnight Robber" is a traditional Carnival character….is anyone teaching this stuff and passing it along to our children! So that they understand that these characters go back a long way and they stand on the shoulders of those who built our heritage and culture?
Great article though! Speaking as an artist myself and past carnival co-designer in NYC.