With the tourist high season in full swing, you can find craft vendors set up at every possible stop across Belize. Sure enough, craft making is a legitimate way for lots of folks to put food on the table. But as any art connoisseur will tell you, craft is craft, it most certainly is not art. Well that's what they say, the Image Factory says different, and it has put together a collection of some of the most inspired and daring craft makers in a new show that tells the official art world: "you ain't all that." We had a look.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
The jaded profile of this sculpture, the lush Zericote shading of another and this one like a Rastaman in mid-skank contrast vastly with these butterfly portraits made from the wings of the prized blue Morpho, the ornate curvature of these conch shell crafts, the clever design of this bamboo chair, and Mercy Sabal's rustic dolls. Combine all those contrasting elements with fearless curation by Gilvano Swasey, the kind that makes straw bags look like Gucci bags and you've got one of the most daring shows of the year.
Gilvano Swasey, Curator
"You know anything that's in a gallery is more expensive and much fancier, and proper lighting. So we are showing that if take these things off the street or the take these things out of the workshop from these artists and put it to look as good as any fancy painting from Picasso or anybody that's worth millions of dollars. Presentation is crucial but what we are showing is also that these artists have soul. What they create is as beautiful as any other thing that's worth a million dollars. All these things that are made have total soul in it; the artists they sweat, they injure their hands, and they cut off their fingers creating these works. So they have soul, they have energy, they have life, and so these are even more valuable than a painting or a car or anything. These things have life, they are not just stationary they just don't loiter on your wall, they don't just idle on your bedside table or something. These are art with life."
Soul in abundance, and these artists are grateful that finally someone has taken their work form the street corner to the gallery space.
Leslie Gillespie, Artist
"I've been given an opportunity to put my art in a gallery which, like you are saying, its usually sold on the street."
Jules Vasquez,
Usually craft is left on the street side to gather dust, you get no respect. But an art gallery is saying this is some of the finest work we've seen. How does it feel to get that respect?
Francisco Cano, Artist
"It feels very good to get a position like that because it will serve as promotion for us and at the same time it helps you because you get to the stage that people are appreciating the work and the inspiration that you are bringing out."
Rudy Neal, Artist
"I never had any idea, not even dreamt about something like this, you know having my art displayed. At first I thought like just having the art and I like you said selling it on the side of the street trying to see what you can get but having it in a place like this you can't even imagine what joy it brings to you. In a such a short time, me myself in 3 months time, I am getting my stuff already in this area in a gallery, unbelievable."
Unbelievable for these young artists but just one more show for master sculptor Curl Gordon who hopes to act as an example for those sharing the display space.
Curl Gordon, Sculptor
"I would never try and put down other guys' work because I know they do their best in doing what they do. But in order to get up to this stage that I am at presently, or this standard, you need to have it within you and its not going to show in the little small pieces that they are doing. You got to start climbing up the ladder to the bigger pieces, that is where the bigger boys."
But for right now these boys seems just fine with their work: detailed, inspiring, singular, and with soul to spare.
The craft show opens tonight at the Image Factory and all pieces are for sale.
7NEWS produced for broadcast by News Director Jules Vasquez
Edited for the internet by Keith Swift
