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Tuesday, January 06, 2004
Connect the dots: today the T'dad Guardian reports that Peter Minshall has decided not to design a band for Carnival 2004 (no link to the story, because the Guardian online archives are but a fairy tale):

Yesterday, Minshall's good friend, MacDonald "Mac" Ward, said he was disappointed with Minshall's decision, but added that a combination of issues led the veteran masman to take such a position.

He said one of Minshall's biggest grouses, and which probably weighed heavily in his making the decision, was the judging system.

Ward said Minshall found it difficult to understand how penalties are weighed against art....

He said Minshall was not happy about the quality of costume design in recent years.

Ward said all these issues led to Minshall deciding he should take a rest from Carnival this year.

Then, on the front page of the Guardian features section, Peter Ray Blood writes about Poison's 2004 band Retromania--specifically, about an "all-inclusive" section produced by Island Events & designed by Peter Elias, called "Jungle Fever":

Comprising renowned designer Peter Elias, Michael Khan, Jason Alcantara and Douglas Gordon, IslandEvents.com has turned to the genius of celebrated mas man Peter Minshall for inspiration.

Elias explains: "Because Posion's theme is Retromania, as required, I went back to the past. One of my most memorable images since my youth was Peter Minshall's presentation of 'Jungle Fever,' which I remember telling my mom then how much I loved it. It was not difficult to select this as our theme as it was the first thing that came to mind."

Elias said because the section is a tribute to Minshall, "a staunch critic of modern-day mas, especially the two-piece bikinis with sequins and beads," he and his IslandEvents.com colleagues tried to come up with a costume that would compliment Minshall’s mas aesthetic.

Please note what Elias says: his "Jungle Fever" is meant as a tribute to Minshall, who is "a staunch critic of modern-day mas ... the two-piece bikinis with sequins and beads"; Elias has "tried to come up with a costume that would compliment Minshall’s mas aesthetic". Then glance at the photographs accompanying the article, which depict a series of healthy young people modelling Elias's "Jungle Fever" designs. The costumes consist of bikinis (with optional shorts for the men), sequins, beads, & a token feather or two.

Just in case the point is not entirely clear: as a tribute to Minshall, the man who is arguably the greatest artist in the history of Trinidad Carnival, Elias & his associates have created a series of costumes that embody to the last square inch of spandex exactly what Minshall has spent his career battling against.

Since they're clearly too obtuse to realise it on their own, could someone please tell Messrs. Elias, Khan, Alcantara, & Gordon that they owe Peter Minshall an apology? They'll make a tidy profit from their handiwork, which on Ash Wednesday is all that will matter. Keep Minshall's name out of it. He deserves far more respect.

posted by Nicholas | 9:46 PM
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SOME FACTS ON THE MAN'S HISTORY


MIND YOU IN 1987 "CITING LACK OF REVERENCE FOR ARTIST IN TRINIDAD HE ANNOUNCED THAT THIS WAS GOING TO BE HIS LAST YEAR IN MAS" ..........HE WON BAND OF THE YEAR WITH CARNIVAL IS COLOUR.

1990 TANTANA HAD 50 SECTIONS (WILL POISON BEAT THAT?)

1990 MINSHALL INSISTED FOR 1991 HE WAS FINISHED WITH MAS 2WEEKS INTO CARNIVAL SS INTERIM WAS LAUNCHED.

So I am new to the mas game and unfortunately not that familiar with minshall, but reading the several articles, I did wonder what was going through the creators head of Jungle Fever to say it was a tribute to the man

If he has always detested the idea of beads, bikinis and the "glamor" mas, why would you create such a mas and then call it a tribute. That is the utmost irony and truly a sad state of affairs..

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WELL YES....

They need to apologize to the man.

And all those playing in Jungle Fever....


COVER UP

Thanks for posting that article NEO.

Sunshine, have you ever watched any of the opening ceremonies of the Summer Olympics in Barcelona or Atlanta? Minshall was involved, and it is very evident. I remember watching the opening ceremoies for Atlanta and saying along with my mother that was Minshall's thing...a few seconds later the commentator mentioned Minshall's involvement. If you've seen that or any of Minshall's mas on a carnival tape you will see the pagentry of his mas.

Atlanta:


NEO, As for Poison beating Minshall's 50 sections they could only beat it in NUMBERS.

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Shandy:

I don't recall the opening ceremonies for the olympics, but reviewing the pic, I do not doubt that I have not seen his work.

The designers of Jungle Fever should indeed apologize i agree with that.

They just mention Minshall name in an attempt to boost the significance and credibility of their presentation, it hasn't worked :




But i still gonna hav good time in JF

Just for you Chun i'll cover up significantly....

:p

His work for the Olympics are just amazing:)

And it is art no question:)

ANOTHER ONE FOR ALL YUH BIKINI AND BEADS

by Dylan Kerrigan & Nicholas Laughlin
from the January/February 2004 Issue (No. 65) of Caribbean Beat

Epilogue & Credits



The story of the last half-century of Trinidad Carnival is a story of brilliant, ambitious, tireless men and women, striving to achieve brave visions. It is a story of masterpieces and failures. It is a story of folk traditions transformed by imagination into art. It is also the story of a young society discovering a new confidence in itself, outgrowing old boundaries and prejudices, becoming more aware of its strengths and weaknesses. It is a story of giddily rapid evolution in creativity, technology, ideas, and understanding.
But there are forces capable of transforming art into something else; old boundaries can long survive undetected beneath the surface; and evolution is not always upwards.
From the 1950s to the late 80s, Carnival’s artistic benchmark was steadily raised. But during the decade of the 90s and into the new century, Carnival observers could not ignore the creative levelling-off and then decline that was happening before their eyes. One generation of masmen and women died or retired, another accomplished its greatest triumphs, but the wave of fresh talent that ought to have swept in — as it had in the 50s with Saldenah and Bailey and Velasquez, in the 60s with McWilliams and the Harts and Chang, and in the 70s with Berkeley and Minshall — was conspicuously absent. (And in recent years both Berkeley and Minshall have lamented that no younger designers have emerged to challenge them.)
Simply put, over the last 15 years, Carnival has been guided more firmly by market forces than by creative ambition. Wayne Berkeley once said that “Producing a successful masquerade band is a combination of both artistry and business,” but in today’s mas the combination is uneven. The cost of playing in a Carnival band has risen constantly, now that masqueraders are paying not just for a costume and two days’ worth of music, but for security guards, drinks carts, and a massive marketing campaign as well. Simultaneously, costume designs grow ever more formulaic — some skimpy square inches of spandex, a few festoons of beads, a few tinselly loops of braid, and a feather or two, with a few dozen colour variations. A Minshall costume still stands out, more dramatically than ever, but otherwise it’s often impossible to tell masqueraders from different bands apart. Bandleaders hire no-name designers to churn out a series of generic sketches. The days when an artist of the calibre of Carlisle Chang would be invited to design a Carnival band are long gone. Bikini mas reigns.
Another worrying development is the gradual re-segregation of the mas, along strictly economic lines. In the 1940s and 50s, the emergence of the upper classes onto the streets proved to be a creative trigger. Nowadays, Carnival is simply too expensive for many, and security cordons separate those who can afford to join the bands from those who can’t. The calypsonian Lord Kitchener famously declared that the road was made to walk on Carnival day, but today non-paying revellers may find their way blocked by a burly uniformed guard.
Of course, every year Carnival still produces flashes of brilliance, perhaps in the form of a headpiece or the combination of colours in a section. Promising young designers like Brian McFarlane, Marlon Griffith, and Patrick Roberts, familiar with the achievements and traditions of the golden age, produce masquerades deserving praise and publicity. But when given the chance to work for one of the large bands, even the brightest are stifled by the emphasis on cost margins, by the need to adapt to a minimum-wage assembly line.
Carnival’s golden age is over. The story has taken a different twist. But who knows what the next chapter will bring, or how the next hero will emerge? Carnival is far from dead. In terms of sheer numbers, more people join the masquerade now than ever before, and the level of enjoyment has never sunk. Traditional characters like the robber and the devil and the sailor still thrive, though on the outskirts of the festival. The sight of tens of thousands of people dancing through the streets of Port of Spain still thrills onlookers, and the euphoria that the masqueraders feel when they get to the “Big Yard” at the Savannah is almost palpable.
All true Carnival lovers must hope that this euphoria, linking hundreds of thousands of revellers over many decades, will eventually be the inspiration for a new golden age, another era of marvels. Cito Velasquez wanted to produce a mas that little children would see and remember even when they were grandparents. There are men and women who can tell you today exactly what they felt when they caught their first glimpse of Back to Africa, or China, The Forbidden City, or River. Fifty years from now, what will today’s children remember? What stories will they have to tell?

Information for this feature was drawn from a wide range of sources, including Trinidad Carnival magazine, edited by the indefatigable Roy