Are we really happy here
With this lonely game we play
Looking for words to say?
Searching
But not finding understanding anyway
We're lost in a mas--masquerade

Both afraid to say
We're just too far away
From being close together from the start
We tried to talk it over
But the words got in the way
We're lost inside this lonely game we play

Thoughts of leaving disappear
Ev'ry time I see your eyes
No matter how hard I try
To understand the reasons
That we carry on this way
We're lost in this masquerade

Both afraid to say
We're just too far away
From being close together from the start
We tried to talk it over
But the words got in the way
We're lost inside this lonely game we play

Thoughts of leaving disappear
Ev'ry time I see your eyes
No matter how hard I try
To understand the reasons
That we carry on this way
We're lost in this masquerade

The words of George Benson from decades ago, Barbados just finished what some felt was a very sadKadooment and Emancipation – yet even in Crop Over there were times when folks would try to MASK their troubles… So when I traipsed into the Queen’s Park Gallery recently, I was not surprised when a host of face-coverings seemed to watch me eyelessly from almost every corner of the room.

Neville Crawford‘s masks were spread onto canvas, they were absolute contrasts of day and night or flames and frost. Their eyes seemed very aware and therefore heightened an observer’s sense of disturbance.

Jason Hope is more than likely a cultural entrepreneur – he makes fantastic works and then lays a pricetag on his work that most find close to impossible to resist! His Monolith and the other mask are are also contrasts but not in colour rather in each aspect…

One is a very human face with metallic studs for both eyes and moles on the face – it is only when you glance underneath you realise he took the time to place concrete nails through the material and bevel the heads to create his effect that you ponder for ages over his effort!

The other mask is more robotic and yet at the same time reminds me of Dr Doom in the Fantastic Four? Both faces use material similar to cement or concrete but apparently stronger and they are almost indestructible, but I am not about to try that – if such a detailed work snapped or cracked? Trust me, you’d watch a grown man cry than go psycho!

Obviously when noting his asking fee for the astounding works on display, young Mr Hope sees the fact that if he makes more work and sells it at an affordable price, then his vision can reach further in a shorter space of time than many others.

Grace Thompson’s mask is unusual in that is part of a silk hanging or a scarf for others still, she has been recently commissioned by the US Postal Service to illustrate a postage stamp for them.

Then there is Martina Pile (this is said as PEE-LAY, like the soccer star… she’s really married to a Bajan who’s Pile as in Driver, but than again she is Gallic, so indulge, LOL) who has transformed a calabash not only into a false face, but a tap and bowl as well!

Believe it or not this only SOME of what awaits you at the QPG, so hurry before September 1st reaches! Soon, I’ll give you more reasons why you should be visiting…