Sandra: 36 Planet of the Arts / March 1997 Winslow DeLaney, David-George, Kirk Moses & , Identities Helen Pitt Gallery January 24 - February 8, 1997 Interviewed by Sandra Semchuk; transcribed by Glenda Watt The colour of the walls is an important part of your exhibition. David: The children like it because it’s a fun colour, mustard, and not a “Do not touch” colour. When | walked into the gallery | had the feeling, in part, of walking into a home. | loved seeing how the children were included as audience. Can you take the reader through the exhibition. As you enter the gallery, first and foremost, you notice the presence of objects scattered similar to that of a playroom; a nursery room. It’s friendly towards children. While the adults are busy looking at the artwork on the walls, the children are busy playing and creating. The space was comfortable. This is the feeling we were attempting to get. My house is like that; it has been trans- formed into a permanent playground. We wanted to give the kids that feeling of home. That's right. The children had to come into the space and feel as though they could run around and we had to feel that they could run around and not bother about pulling stuff off the wall. : Immediately to your right is the installation, “Seesaw”. The seesaw is the opposite of what it should be. The heavy end of the seesaw defies gravity, it is up in the air. The heavy objects represent the quality interaction that | have had with my child — it is not a burden for me to interact with her and to learn from her. Each of her toys represent those quality interactions. | also placed a rolled up $5 bill in the installation. It talks about temptation. Children are tempted, but you can see the change in their behaviour when they've done something like take something that's not theirs — there’s something going on that you recog- nize, a change. | want to interject - I'm so fuelled emotionally by the relationship that | have with my partner and my daughter that it transcends any other form of communication. I've noticed the difficulty with words because the subject tran- scends words a lot of time — there’s been so much support from other families during this exhibition as well. Not nec- essarily people we knew but because they were in the space and they knew that their children could be a part of what was happening as well - in fact those children created works within their space too. Once you leave that piece there are three photographs, computer generated images, by Kirk Moses; first of himself, second, his daugh- ter, and third, his partner before the birth of Kalin. The first piece, of his partner is entitled “Vanity Flower”, where her pregnant stomach is exposed and in the back- ground are these golden flowers. Kirk talked about the magazine, “Vanity Fair” where these people are vain, but his partner is other than that. | think he was trying to jux- tapose the gilded background with her modesty. | also found the division in the three images very interesting. Each image was very separate. The reason that the three of us got together was that as three, we created a balance. Our natures are very very different. | told Winslow that he was the equilibrium between Kirk and myself. Kirk being the last of the 3 to become a father. In fact it was a matter of weeks before the exhibit went up that Kalin was born. On the same wall, there’s a self-portrait by Kirk that follows. He was really surprised because he hadn’t noticed Working Away, painting by Winslow DeLaney Winslow: that | had picked up this piece to include it. | brought it to the gallery. Once it was here he realized its importance, because he was looking at himself in this work in another state of mind as opposed to the three other images where he was specifically dealing with relationships between his partner and his child. There was again another division, himself. My work is different form David's or Kirk’s. It is more traditional. It's more of a social commentary on West Indian life and my life since | have been in Canada. It is more about my relationship to my family, to my immedi- ate family, my new family. The first one, untitled, is of a man lying on a bed in a huge room. There's a stream of light that exposes this devil-like figure, a succubous, sitting on him. The devil is turning looking toward the viewer as though he was caught in the act. | thought that piece was about the constant worry that a father, any responsible family member has, when he knows he (or she) is one of the pivotal parts of the family, bringing home the money to subsist on. The piece next to it, called, “Working away”, is of a woman standing. The painting is divided. On the left side there is a view through the window outside to a small chattel house, on the right side there's a kitchen which is really obvious and behind her there are icons that suggest that this is not her house — that she is a housekeeper. She _ is holding a duster and there’s a white figure, with its head chopped off, that suggests that she’s a working maid. That one is more about the sacrifice that my family made to put me in the position I’m in right now. The 3rd_ painting going left, is of two brothers wrestling or play-fighting. Along that wall there are the subtle texts of words. | can’t get away from my profession as a graphic designer. | wanted to use the entire wall as my piece, not just the paintings. There are these call-outs, suggestions, words that tend to encompass my feelings for my family and things that | do every day, every week, every month. Things like “rest” and “play’ and “worry” and “love” are all concepts that come up every day or as part of family life. Along that wall there’s a painting of my partner Maggie sleeping. We had just come back from a trip to Barbados and | wanted to do something with her in it so | did a painting of her sleeping on a big red couch in Barbados. On the opposite wall there’s a painting of these two figures locked in an embrace. It’s on of the first major paintings | have done since moving to Vancouver. It's called “Immaculate Conception”. It started after we went to church to see about getting married. The priest told us that we couldn't live together anymore, that we couldn’t sleep in the same bed, and that’s really really bizarre stuff. Anyway, he didn’t want us to live or sleep together before we were married. | just wondered which rock this guy had just crawled out from under. | didn’t say that. | felt really offended. So | started this piece that had religious conno- tations to it, focusing on the woman. There are icons of fertility, fidelity, and religion. There’s a light next to her; there's an old belief that the Virgin Mary was impregnat- ed by the light that came down from the angel Gabriel. So there's that light, and there’s a big green room that suggests that there's a lot of fer- tility happening here. But you can’t see this man’s face, he’s turned away from the viewer, and you are left with the question, “Are they about to conceive, have they just conceived, or is this just a plain old embrace?” Those are the kinds of concerns that come up for me every day. They are the same here as they were in Barbados. S: The figures give such a presence to that room. When | think of the painting with the back of the woman towards us | can imagine a child looking at that woman’s bum. . She has such strong legs. W: Strong is exactly the word | use to describe my figures. | was talking to Exploring the relationship with my father was overwhelming. S: B: David a couple of years back. He asked me, “Why do you paint such big people?” My mother and father also come from a West Indian back- ground. One thing that is said, “To look healthy you have to look full. Otherwise you are not healthy”. If Winslow and | were to go back home our relatives would say to us, “You're not healthy.” : “You need some food.” You need to look full. Winslow presents that statement well in his work. It’s so true. There’s a kind of solidness and warmth. : | try to incorporate the power and strength of the people | know (and the delicateness too) from back home, playing in bands, jumping up to the music, that’s what | wanted to portray, the strength of the West Indian people. Between ‘Immaculate Conception’ and ‘Maggie Sleeping’, is a piece | did titled ‘Self Sacrifice’, which is part of this series. Often | observe Zamyla and her friends learning through someone else's instruction. | think it’s extremely important that | document, through video or photography, my daughter's interactions or daily encoun- ters. In the beginning my daughter would often grab the lens of the camera and try and block my view, because often that's the only way she saw me, with this strange instrument in front of my face and often she’s telling me to stop, you know, in a non-verbal way. She was always blocking me, until | had to look at that as well and realize that in fact | did have this instrument in front of my face a good percent- age of the time, documenting her. That’s when | came up with the name ‘Self Sacrifice’ because instead of me inter- acting with her and her friends | was more involved with wanting to document my daughter, so that she could look back and | could look back. That comes from the fact that my father wasn’t always at home and we didn’t have a visual or audio reference to our earlier years. | wanted Zamyla to have that. It’s just out of my day-to-day docu- mentation that this one day happened, that all the chil- dren in the image were so attentive to what was being read to them. : It was like you weren’t there almost. They're so used to me being somewhere in the room with this thing in front of my face. I’m pretty sure that they just saw me as there’s David-George again with his machine, then forgot about me. Humbling experience. Yes indeed. But I’ve said it again and again and that is that Zamyla is my sole resurrection. She’s just shown me that | don’t have to go and pay to laugh, | can seek out laughter through the interaction | have with the people at home. As adults all of a sudden we don’t laugh anymore. We have to be told that we should laugh or we laugh. at sitcoms which have fake laughter dubbed in and that as children we seek moment to moment joy and laughter. I’m reminded through my daughter that: Look, it doesn’t cost anything, it’s not that hard, just a little bit of imagina- tion.” | also mentioned to you earlier that the creative process has been made easier by Zamyla showing me: “Look, just do it. It'll come to you.” She'll give me feed- back on the work she sees, an image of herself, or she'll recognize a toy in the image and she'll add to it by saying, “Look at this daddy, this wasn’t in here at all. Do you want this? “ She'll also tell me if she likes it. Directly in front of ‘Self Sacrifice’ is a shelf unit which is covered in fun fur and | titled that piece ‘Security’ because the corners have been rounded dnd covered with some- thing soft. Homes are built totally void of consideration for children, very abrasive corners. That’s only because it takes a little more time to round the corners or the cost involved is a concern. For the first few years of a person's life they have to be looked after because of these corners. It’s a physical image of a psychological concept too. 36 Planet of the Arts / March 1997 (WW Identities Winslow DeLaney, David-George, Kirk Moses Helen Pitt Gallery January 24 - February 8, 1997 Interviewed by Sandra Semchul transcribed by Glenda Watt Sandra: The colour of the walls is an important part of your ‘exhibition. David: The children like it because it's a fun colour, mustard, ‘and not a “Do not touch" colour. ‘5: When | walked into the galery! had the feeling, in part, of walking into a home. | loved seeing how the children were included as audience. Can you take the reader through the exhibition. 1D: Asyou enter the gallery frst and foremost, you notice the presence of objects scattered similar to that of a playroom 2 nursery room. It's friendly towards children. While the Adults are busy looking atthe artwork on the walls, the , She has such strong legs. W. Strong is exactly the word | use to describe my figures. | was talking tO Exploring the relationship with my father was overwhelming. s Davida couple of years back. He asked me, "Why do you paint such big people?” [My mother and father aso come from a West indian back ‘ground. One thing that is sid, “To look heathy you have to look full. Otherwise you are not healthy”. If Winslow and I were to go back home our relatives would sy tous, "You're not healthy.” “You need some food.” You need to look full. Winslow presents that statement ‘wall in his work. Hs so true There’sa kind of solidness and warmth, | wy t incorporate the power and strength of the people know (and the delicateness too) from back home, playing in bands, jumping upto the music thats what | wanted to portray, the strength of the West indian people. ‘Between ‘Immaculate Conception’ and "Maggie Sleeping’, isa piece I di titled ‘Self Sacrifice, which is part of this Series. Often | observe Zama and her friends learning ‘through someone else's instruction. think’ i ‘extremely important that | ‘document, through video of Photography, my: daughters interactions or daily encoun. ters. In the beginning. my daughter would often grab the lens of the camera and ty and. block my. view, because often that's the only way she saw me, with this Strange instrument in front ff my face and often she's telling me to stop, you know, in a non-verbal way. She was ‘always blocking me, until | hhad to look at that 35 well and realize that in fact did have this instrument in front of my face a good percent ‘age of the time, documenting her. Thats when | came up With the name ‘Self Sacrifice” because instead of me inte: ‘acting with her and her friends Iwas more involved with ‘wanting to document my daughter, so that she could look back and could took back. That comes from the fact that my father wasn't always at home and we didn’t have 2 Visual or audio reference to our earlier years. | wanted Zama to have tha. Is just out of my day-to-day docu: ‘mentation that this one day happened, that all the chi Gren in the image were 50 attentive to what was being ead to them. Ie was ke you weren't there almost. Theyre so used to me being somewhere in the room with thisthing infront of my face. 'm pretty sure that they just Saw me as there's Davi-George again with his machine, then forgot about me. Humbling experience, Yes indeed. But I've sad it again and again and thats that Zamyla is my sole resurrection. She's just shown me that | don't have to go and pay to laugh, Ican seek out laughter ‘though the interaction 1 have with the people at home. As adults all of a sudden we don’t laugh anymore. We have to be told that we should laugh or we laugh at Sitcoms which have fake laughter dubbed in and that a children we seek moment to moment joy and laughter. 'm Feminded through my daughter tha: Look, it doesn't cost anything, it's not that hard, just alittle bit of imaging tion.” I alo mentioned to you earlier that the creative process has been made easier by Zamyla showing me: Look, just do it. Ill come to you." shell give me feed. back on the work she sees, an image of heel, or she'll recognize a toy in the image and shell add to it by saying, “Look at this daddy this wasn’t in here at al Do you want ‘this? "Shell also tell me if she likes it Directly in front of self Sacrifice’ is shelf unit whichis covered in fun fur and I itled that piece ‘Security because the comers have Been rounded and covered with some thing soft. Homes are built totally void of consideration for children, very abrasive corners. Tht’ only because it takes alittle more time to round the corners or the cost involved isa concern. For the fist few years of a person's life they have to be looked after because of these corners. Its a physical image of a psychological concept too.