Considering the impact of indians in trinidad on visual culture

Abstract

This paper proposes that a multivaried Indo-Trinidadian aesthetic contribution drawn from ritual, domestic, and imaginary space continues to remain historically and culturally submerged in both die definition of artistic practice and in the national consciousness of Trinidad society. The art works and artists analyzed here were selected from an exhibition held at die National Museum and Gallery in Port of Spain on die occasion of Indian Arrival Day 2017, which is celebrated as a public holiday annually. While diere are reasons for the continuously delayed entry of Indo-Caribbean motifs and symbols into die nationalist aesdietic imagination, by die second decade of die twentiedi century, there is no excuse of claiming fear of imposing on religious rituals. The intersection between the secular and the religious have been fundamentally important to innovations in odier art movements in Europe and elsewhere. Nor can we assume an exclusivity or separateness on die part of Indian art and cultural practitioners, as diere is sufficient evidence from die works of a desire to enter die public marketplace of ideas on visual culture. Leaving die space still open to interpretations diis essay raises the important question that must be considered: Beyond the acceptance of arrival and acknowledgement of die presence of Indians in Trinidad and in die Caribbean in general, what cross fertilizations of imagination and creativity have taken place diat lead to aesdietic and artistic creativity and advancement for art and artistic practice in diis region?.