Maya Ramesar Presented by Alice Yard

“In these works, non-human, subhuman and superhuman figures abound, elements of fiction that the artist and her audience superimpose over real life. (…) The discomfort, tension and posturing of these figures are forceful rather than subtextual.” Alice Yard

On January 16th, for one night only, Alice Yard in collaboration with Cass’Mosha A. Centeno presented Big and Small, a series of paintings and digital animations by Maya Ramesar at 27 Pembroke Street, Port of Spain (Trinidad). 

Speaking about her work, Ramesar explains: 

“Local art in the public consciousness is serene and picturesque. I was frustrated with figures that appeared contemplative, languid or busy making merry without gaze.  Local people and spaces are often treated as passive muses rather than individual characters. 

What or who gets to take up space, and what is shoved to the periphery? What is framed? Focal?”

With each painting more haunting than the one before, layers of collage, familiar black and white tiles, hellish weighty atmosphere and sometimes unrecognizable form – human? beast? alter ego? are meant to create intrigue or even a certain uneasiness. Big and Small was a deliberate and brave confrontation of any preconceived notions of “good or worthwhile” Art, as well as any expectations we may have of it.

Maya Ramesar is communications officer at the Trinidad and Tobago Association for the Hearing Impaired, as well as a freelance illustrator. Born in 1994, she has a BA in French with a minor in Caribbean Sign Language interpreting from the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine. She works in oils, acrylics, collage and digital animation.

Every once in a while, it’s great to visit a show and feel a strong, emotional reaction – be it pleasant curiosity or giddy nausea. Even better when we are forced to question ourselves on what’s behind the distress or contentment that we feel after looking at/ engaging with any form of creative expression. It means that the work has done exactly what Art is supposed to do:

“…to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.” Cesar A. Cruz said that.

Keep up with Maya’s work @artofmkr and don’t miss the next of Alice Yard’s upcoming ONE NIGHT shows at aliceyard.org

Photography: Patrick Rasoanaivo for Culturego Magazine