Richard Rawlins
1. How did you come about using design in such an interactive way?
The decision to actively show work meant that I would have to negotiate some unfamiliar terrain. Our local artscape has it’s own set of unique rules, governed by levels of acceptance, economies of scale, exclusivity, relevance and tenure among others things. Design is about ‘communication for living’ and as such it presented me with the answer to some of the problems ‘plaguing’ the ‘scene’. I set out to circumnavigate those problems.
For me it wasn’t any different to what I did everyday in my advertising job. How would I be able to show and address all of these issues? I would employ design as the major tool of communication and then some.
I ‘DID’ it. By that I mean I literally D.I.D. it.
Defined it. Initiated it. Developed it. Defined an objective of what I wanted to achieve.
Initiated a position for where I wanted to be and what I wanted to do.
I say initiate because this may have changed over the time and development of the work and I may have had to backward engineer. Last was the Development of a Communication strategy. What vehicle will we used to get from A to B.
"A" being the place we are currently and "B" being the place that we desire to be.
2. Did your ideas meet any resistance at first?
Resistance is objective really. I mean if you want to show in a gallery, but galleries would rather show other work that’s not yours and you appropriate a space and still show your work, the problem is solved. When I started sending out stuff from artzpub.com and eroticartweektt.blogspot and my own blog richardmarkrawlins.blogspot.com via Facebook, I got flagged for spamming. Maybe it was Facebook’s server or somebody with other interest other than my own who didn’t want to see me get ahead. I still beat that by embedding message codes in my statuses, using twitter, word of mouth and email. Before one of my shows someone tried to piggyback off of what I was doing by attempting to book a one night show of work supposedly similar to the work that I was showing in my one night show, the night before my own show. Of course from time to time you get the odd person here or there that will seek to pull you down over what you are doing and claim it’s only about self-promotion. There is always something…and there is always a way to beat it.
3. How did you bring people around to your way of thinking?
I didn’t have to. Having defined the problems with our local artscape and looking at its rules, I went the other way. Sun Tzu was Japanese warlord. Touted by some as probably the best there ever was. His father on the other hand it has been said was an ass, and did everything badly. Tzu learned from his father by going the other way and hence ensuring success. I go the other way…away from the norm. There are people out there that don’t need convincing about wanting something a little different. What I’m doing is a little different. That in itself creates interest and fits into my communication strategy.
4. What have been some of the projects that you have done and how did they come about?
• Speak UP 2007 – this was done as part of the Radical Designs group show of eleven artists and designers, who would employ Jeans as the medium for their expression. This was the beginning of a concerted effort on my part to show work. This work was the first time that I really began putting together the exploration of my own visual vocabulary. The work consisted of a pair of jeans and a book with representations of our local picong-patois-vernacular. Download it here:
http://www.artzpub.com/alt/pdf/SPEAKUP.pdf
• Draconian Switch 2008 – started this as a way of encouraging creative people in the advertising industry into expressing themselves in another forum, that might have been closer to their creative self and minus the mental blocks and frustrations of dealing with clients and account executives.
• Alice Bangie 2010 – my first foray into furniture and sculpture as inspired by the work of Surinamese artist Roberto Tjon Meeuw to build a FATU BANGIE a huge bench for friendship, community and liming.
• The Bag Project 2010 - a little experiment at showing online. This exploration in recycling using old jeans and turning them into bags facilitated an online performance art piece. Initially meant to show only online, the project jumped from art and fashion as the medium to fashion when it was shown as part of Jazzing Up the Runway. See the show online here:
http://richardmarkrawlins.blogspot.com/2010/07/richard-rawlins-bag-project-2010.html
• Button Project 2010 – the culmination of my political explorations from 2006 -2010. Held on the verge of the 2010 election. There is an element of political associations in T&T that’s like a fashion statement in themselves. We are asked to choose between colours. This show marked my foray into multi-media as well. I ran an animation on street, projecting animation onto a house opposite Alice Yard, and I would start my use of video for my artist statement. I really don’t believe in the long artist talk of 30 ‘over –intellectual’ minutes. What I have to say about my work can be done in under 10mins. This leaves the person coming to my event with the ability to chat, view the work, and hear and see me doing my artist statement at any point of the night (it loops), without feeling corralled to listen to what I have to say. My statements are brief to the point and perhaps even entertaining. Of course on the night of the show I’m still very accessible for discussion. My show is a human interaction piece afterall.
• Chinese Worker 2010 - this show was my homage to the Chinese Migrant Worker. The focus of this exploration was the affordability of art as well. I wanted anybody to be able to come to my show and “feel like they in the thing too.” We lament the fact that people don’t buy art, but I say people will buy art if an artist makes something that the average person can afford. This doesn't mean undervaluing your work or even working cheaply, but it does mean employing techniques toward the commercilisation and franchisement of work, something that the international galleries have long understood with their museum gift shops. Also as one friend pointed out we are in globalised recession so there are concerns about excesses in the art market and a certain amount of fiscal prudence being required. It’s art without excess. Affordable to make and affordable to buy...it’s I suppose trying to have a balance…create a market that’s sustainble...given the market we are in. Everybody wins the artist, the buyer and the "local art economy".
• The RMR Store 2010 – this venture is an extension of that exploration about merchandising. Long after my show, the work and items related to the work can actually be purchased online. The work, ‘works’ for me in the background while I continue to make more work or add to the inventory. Check out the store here: http://www.zazzle.com/rmraffinity*
5. What are some of your concerns about design in Trinidad and Tobago at this time?
My concerns are that not enough Design is being utilized. Design is about living. What does that say about us who aren’t making more use of it? I go to a bookstore and I see local magazines on the shelf, all badly designed and ugly. I see children’s books all badly designed. Not even the content structure is designed well. I look at our transplanted Miami template buildings and our packaged Made in China templates and it’s the same thing. There isn’t a conscious decision to employ and implore designers to do things. When I say designer we think Mas. We think Fashion Week. Do we think about street signs and highway signs? Do we think about environmental signage? Where is our design relevant Trinidadian design? Don’t get me wrong, Designers like Noel, Darbeau, Allen, and Young are exploring these fields but we need more. We need our own Alessi Design Factories, our own Wedgewoods and our own IKEAS. It shouldn’t be that one of the only avenues of employment for a designer is in advertising. We need more Abovegroups handling the design of identity. Maybe that is what we need a conscientious look at the overhaul of our identity as a nation. Maybe this a job for the newly formed Ministry of the People of Trinidad and Tobago. Getting Trinidadian designers to design our space. The UK design council is a perfect example of embracing growth and innovation. They have always championed the cause of Growing design to Grow Business. They hold at the centre of their being the concept of design as a building tool for a stronger economy and improved way of everyday life.
6. What do you think about the teaching of design and art, what do you believe is not being done and can be done better?
That’s hard for me to answer. I am not an educator in either of the disciplines. I would have to defer to people or peers that are practicing artists/designers and teaching. I look at life with promise and look at the graduating classes with the hope of the next big thing. Who knows what’s coming out of the programme. I recently saw the work of the UTT Animation Graduating class. I was so damned impressed. I did not feel as though I was watching student work at all. The collaborative teaching of the likes of Camille Selvon and people like Martin ‘Mice ‘ Raymond just showed through. I guess that is what I want. After four years of art school your work must no longer look first year “ish”.
I have hired COSTAAT students for my art department. I’ve never been disappointed. You come out of that 3-4 year Visual Communications Programme and you are ready to work. What we as artists and designers do is valuable and we must treat our craft with the respect it deserves, that starts with your education in the disciplines. With the likes of teachers like Adele Todd, Steve Ouditt and Lesly-Anne Noel teaching at UWI. I guess I expect a whole lot from that programme as well.
7. Do you have any suggestions to the up and coming designer or artist?
I always say just make work and make lots of it. I believe that creativity is God in Action.
When you look at his work (if you believe in God), you better believe that you have big shoes to fill. Don’t waste your time doing nothing. Practice, practice, practice…it’s what designers and artists do. They work. They are the real thinkers and revolutionaries of the world. We are the people that invent the stuff that does the stuff for people that don’t need to think about stuff. If we do it well enough people won’t have to even care that their life is better for it, they’ll just assume it was always so. Embrace technology and social media make them work for you. Archive your work. We debate the lack of appreciation for archivists and the act or archiving everyday in Trinidad. Archive your work. Explore it write on it examine and dessiminate it. Somebody somewhere will read it and care. Have valid and relevant content at the core of your work. Step out of the notebook and into reality. Invest in you and make things happen. Create your own action plan and follow it. Promote your self and have no shame for doing so. Phillipe Starck is the most self promoted designer in the world. Support for your work is the ticket to engagement. Ultimately this is what it all comes down to engagement.
gracias...
richard rawlins
richard.rawlins@cmbcreative.com
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