#sexypink/Performance Arts

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Sexypink - In Bereavement - Thank you Rubadiri Victor for permission to reprint your recollections in text and image of a talent gone so soon.

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Rest in Perfect Peace Mark Akini Nottingham. My Deepest Condolences go out to his Family & Closest Friends- especially to a brother-in-arms like Arnold Goindhan... It is distressful when it is someone so young & still so full of Promise... Mark was an enormously creative soul, with a grand appetite for Life & Creative possibility. When a number of us sparked the underground creative movements of the 1990s, Mark and a cohort of his peers from the St Joseph Valley emerged as the next Rapso young guns- Black Lyrics. 

They were the face of the Rapso generation right after the Kindred generation. They in fact have a pretty good album of young Teen Rapso that has never been released. This may be a great time to bless it with air... The group of four escaped the limitations of their valley home and 'Pinny' and Mark especially descended into the sometimes viper-pit that could be Trini and Port of Spain theatre (lol). 

They actually broke the mold and did excellently for themselves, becoming steadfast working actors and creators- probably the hardest working theatre men of their generation... Mark was a member of my troupe of actors in my company- the WIRE BEND Folklore Theatre.

 They were the first people I called when I formed it in 2015. I owe him, Pinny, Renee Michelle King, Nicole Wong Chong, Karina Andrews 'Arlette', Kurtis Gross, and others so much because they committed to be the vehicles for me to tell my stories, and have done so since. Mark and Pinny in particular have been fearless in disappearing into roles and collaborating with my madness. Not every actor can act well in full body costumes and puppets- fewer can manage 7 complex costume changes, whilst nailing all the respective characters per play.  Dragons, Imps, Lions, Wolves, Old Men, Children, African Kings,- Mark never hesitated to wrestle with the role and render it. He was especially my go-to to play 'The Boy'- that recurring immortal archetype of the mythical innocent young male. 

He did not need to act it- he was very much the Boy. Apart from his fresh-facedness he had that openess, curiousity, and appetite for life. He also had the naughtiness of the Boy too... Because of this and his wit, he also was my choice to portray my version of the traditional Anansi... He nailed it...He and Pinny, like many of us who choose this life, have a profound connection to 'the Child inside' and for the sacredness and essentialness of Play. So Mark was playful as he embodied those essential archetypes- and also as he moved through life. 

He was a committed Teacher, Actor, and Rapso-man. He was moving into being a full multi-media titan embracing film/video and more- especially dedicated to the disenfranchised Boys of the Street- the Zess generation. He wanted to record their songs and tell their stories in film (one of the other things about Mark is that he got things done). I think he understood how profoundly the Arts expanded his life from being an urban village boy from the St Joseph Valley with ceilings on his expectations. 

He wanted to repeat that emancipation for others...Mark- though young- was very much a family MAN. He had a relatively large-ish family and was an excellent father to his kids, who he adored. My heart goes out to them... Too young. This one. Too young. A lot of good ones are going. 

We can only hope it is as Stalin said, ''MORE COME...''We will dedicate the 2023 Season of Wire Bend in April to him. Rest in Peace, Young Brother...

[galleryyuhself]

Carifesta XIV

"August" by Sarah Knights

"Social Studies II" by Alex Kelly

"Basic Yellow" by Shane Hanson Mohammed

Do take advantage to see one of the many shows currently on display at the National Academy of the Performing Arts (NAPA) in Port of Spain as part of the offerings for Carifesta XIV. “Enter the Picture” is a show of contemporary works of six emerging Artists, graduates of The University of the West Indies from the Department of Creative and Festival Arts.

[sexypinkon]

Sexypink - Renaissance and Resistance.

This Performance piece by recent Maestro Dobel Latinx Art Prize 2023 Awardee Carlos Martiel (Cuban) reflects the great painting of St Sebastian by Andrea Mantegna (1459) Martiel uses his black body unironically in an Italian setting to bring home the sacrifice and martyrdom faced by those constantly oppressed and murdered for causes against inhumanity to man.

Mantegna chose to stand St.Sebastian up in a classical Christlike pose. Martiel chooses the fetal position to advance the action of the impaling just as dramatically.

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Sexypink looks at a work by Carlos Martiel -

Trophy CUBA. Tatuare la storia, Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea (PAC), Milan, Italy. Curated by Diego Sileo and Giacomo Zaza

I am lying down ‎in a fetal position with a hunting arrow piercing my waist.

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Sexypink - An important award for a powerful performer. Well deserved Carlos Martiel.

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Sexypink - Perform your heart out.

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Sexypink - Upcoming Tobago Festival 2024

Sexypink - excitement in Tobago

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Sexypink - Anticipating AKUZURU.

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Sexypink - AKUZURU Intransit.

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Sexypink - AKUZURU TODAY!

.....a sToried plume within a weB of beautiful chAos......

.....we were protected in the midst of the mystical MISTS in the verdant mountains....

AlKHEMy of Sound(((((÷÷÷Plant ing DIRT(((( was an intense process . More plummage to follow...

Photos by @studiobryonyella and #akuzuru

Supported by @britishcouncilamericas and @coco_dance_festival 2023

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Sexypink - Save the Date

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Sexypink - The American Artist Ayana V Jackson comes to Trinidad and Tobago to influence some of her work.

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Sexypink - Akuzuru - Upcoming Performance

S P O R A MYSTICA

a new environmental performance work

by   A k u z u r u

COMMISSIONED BY : The National Museum and Art Gallery of Trinidad & Tobago -  

Venue : City Of Port Of Spain -Fort San Andres -

In celebration of WORLD ART DAY 2023

Themed : Performance is Art

Artist Proposal  (Posters Attached ) From The Artist

S P O R A MYSTICA is an ode to the purity of existence and the mystically imbued qualities of Spores . This inter galactic experience of the cosmic microscopic unseen suggests an inter-dimensional phenomena within the traversing patterns of Spores . Humans and animals breathe in , literally inhale millions of spores continually .

Each breath carries the essential life force of spores that makes existence a magnificent  intangible happening . Spores are a continuum of new births .

The artist through performative communion with the unseen microscopically powerful S P O R A will be attuned through various gestures and stamps of sound , movement , texture and form as her body / bodies as spore selves navigate the grounds of Fort San Andres , connecting the trees as sentinels with the architectural and mounted historical structures .

As an environmental intervention , this multi-sensorial work will most pointedly engage the surrounding ocean -the water element- which flanks the earth itself becoming an integral core of this exploration .This process as a cumulative effect will transmit the essential vibrations , toward a heightened sense of awareness resulting , in a deeply transformative experience so that a communion of elements and interstitial spaces amplifies the mystical prowess of our spore selves within the whole of S P O R A as an Omnipotent force .

© A k u z u r u  2023

A k u z u r u  Artist Biography

A k u z u r u  is an Avant Garde artist whose practice spans 30 years . She produces through a TransDisciplinary praxis straddling multiple approaches . Her thought provoking works invokes the unseen , where the material and the immaterial are as connectedly interspersed as the immanent and transcendent . Primarily environmental using vast spaces in the natural world and connected into the spatial appropriations of interiors of building spaces , her other- worldly forms in her installations or 'spatial works ' and expansive Performative AkTivations inoculates into the viewer deeply indelible emotive experiences .

The artist has established a multi-faceted lexicon of performative works which include her Ak-tionisms, Spontaneous Art, Spatial Works, Gesture Works, Experiential Art, whether live or on film. With the natural world and metaphysics being central to her process, her immersive complex presentations are expansive , often multi-locational , involving a multitude of persons whom she calls her co-performers, as well as deeply engaging solo expressions.

Having lived, studied and practiced in Trinidad, the UK and Nigeria for many years, her Total Art experiences are conceptually and physically intense - integral - often interak-tive, multi-genre constructions,  emphasizing performance art's radical axis as a dynamic and powerful art form.

This Environmental-Transdisciplinary artist has become known for her multi-genre works and her many performances including her iconic healing chambers and large sculptural-installations consistently presented worldwide at prestigious institutions and powerful natural environments including the Caribbean, Europe, Africa, Asia and the United States.

A pioneer in the radical presence-ing of performance art in Trinidad and the Caribbean, her evolvement as an artist during a thirty year practice, has exhibited a steady embrace of performance art as her primary focus in her TransDisciplinary visions, a metaphysically dynamic intersection of the human and natural world; encapsulating the science of space, light, sound, silence , movement, gesture and nuance .

The artist has been the recipient of numerous International awards from the Prince Claus Fund- Netherlands , the City of Munich- Germany and the Commonwealth Foundation- UK .

Significant solo presentations at important institutions include the National Museum of Trinidad & Tobago , PAMM - Perez Art Museum Miami in the US and the Buchheim Museum - Germany .

A k u z u r u  was also Art Lecturer for experimental practice at the University of the West Indies -Trinidad & Tobago during fifteen years.

Her project -Earthology- is an epic ongoing global opus.

© A k u z u r u  2023

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Sexypink - Akuzuru - 2023 - upcoming Performance

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Sexypink - Look out for traditional mas at its best.