Island Identity Challenging Trinidad and Tobago Exhibit Reflects Multitude of Cultures by Gary Tischler Outsiders, if they think about Trinidad and Tobago at all, tend to think of it in terms of clichÈsótropical islands drifting in the blue of the Caribbean, steel drums, carnival, and maybe Nobel Laureates V.S. Naipaul and Derek Walcott. ìA Challenging Endeavor: The Arts in Trinidad and Tobago,î an exciting but challenging exhibition itself, is now on display at the Inter-American Development Bankís Cultural Center. Using a selection of works by several important artists and exploring the art of carnival, the exhibition tries to achieve a poetic semblance of the history and heart of these small, vital and multifaceted islands in search of themselves. LeRoy Clarke, born in 1938, is one of the featured artists, and both his work and comments point out the difficulties involved in identifying or creating an artistic heritage in his homeland. ìA place exists not only in the mind but when it is described and the descriptions have been preserved,î he said. ìTrinidad has been around for almost 500 years, but we have no recollection of ourselves Ö culture appears and disappears. That is why it is so difficult to live and work in Trinidad, and why it takes a great deal of self-reassurance to stay as I have done.î Clarkeís paintings are full of flavor and foreboding, and in the sharp, curved lines there are acts of recognition and traces of influencesóJoan Miro comes to mind, but a Miro at war. Clarkeís titles say a lot about his attitude toward place and historyóìWhat the Work Secretes,î ìWe Who Will Greet Youî and the enigmatic ìLabyrinth of Yet In Wait,î a large, bustling, dangerous and surreal place where entities with ferocious eyes and sharp teeth hover over smudged masses. Part of the issue of Trinidad culture is Trinidad history and its search for identity. Trinidad, along with Tobago, the small island off its northeast coast, have been a patchwork of cultures, invasion, domination and foreign ruleóa crazy quilt of race and ethnicity that has certainly produced diversity but also confusion. The original inhabitants were Arawaks and Caribs when Columbus arrived in 1498. Spain colonized the area and enslaved the Indians. In the 1700s, French Catholic immigrants from nearby Caribbean islands began to arrive, giving rise to a cotton and sugar plantation culture and an influx of African slaves. Great Britain came next and with it the eventual abolition of slavery, which led to the arrival of cheap laborers from Northern India, as well as immigrants from Portugal, Syria, Lebanon and China. Trinidad did not gain independence from Great Britain until 1962, becoming a Republic in 1976. The exhibition reflects this diversity as well as the difficulties of diversityóits refusal to coalesce into an identifiable whole. But it can also amount to celebration. Consider how you get from the traditionalist (and serenely beautiful) landscapes of Michel Jean Cazabon, who worked under British rule in the 1800s with British patrons, to the anguished and affecting work of Clarke. Consider the works of a group of pre-independence artists forging not so much Trinidadian works but expeditions into the new. If there are outside or genre influences in the works of artists such as Sybil Atteck, Carlisle Chang, Marguerite Wyke, Mohammed Pharouk Alladin, and the post-independence generation of Ralph Baney, Nina Squires, Isaiah J. Boodhoo and Leo Glasgow, they are filtered and transformed through the gifts of the artists and the effects of place. Alladinís energetic ìCarnival,î Willie Chenís Cezanne-thick ìVillage Shacksî and Nina Squiresís ìPanoramaî are bathed in influences but are original in vision and theme. Another section features the work of contemporary, younger artists such as Wendy Nanan, Christopher Cozier and Irenee Shaw. ìCarnival,î a separate section of the exhibition, represents in some ways the popular image of Trinidad and Tobagoóthe image of visitors and tourists, the idea if not the reality of a culture peculiar to the places. A series of steel drums with figures and paper-mache masks evoke the spirit of Mardi Gras or Carnival. All thatís missing is the people, the confusion, the voices, and the music of a diverse and still searching nation. ìA Challenging Endeavor: The Arts in Trinidad and Tobagoî runs through July 3 at the Culture Center of the Inter-American Development Bank, 1300 New York Ave., NW, Monday to Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information, please call (202) 623-3774. Gary Tischler is a contributing writer to The Washington Diplomat.