Short profile of a practitioner of Trinidad carnival and an international designer, Peter Minshall

1. CULTURAL FORMS:
PRACTITIONERS

2. WHAT IS A PRACTITIONER?
• a person actively engaged in an art, discipline, or profession

3. PRACTITIONERS OF CARNIVAL
• Artists and Craftspeople
• Designers
• Musicians
• Traditional Characters
• Stickfighters

5. THE MIGHTY SPARROW AND LORD
KITCHENER
(KING OF CALYPSO AND THE GRAND
MASTER)

6. TRADITIONAL PRACTITIONERS

7. CONTEMPORARY PRACTITIONERS

8. DESIGNERS
• Design costumes
• Construct complex costumes
• Come up with themes or messeges

9. PETER MINSHALL: DESIGNER
BAND LEADER

10. PETER MINSHALL BROUGHT HOME THE
IDEA THAT
• CARNIVAL IS THEATRE
• CARNIVAL IS SPIRITUAL
• CARNIVAL IS A TIME TO EXPRESS IDEAS THROUGH
PERFORMANCE AND ART

11. • BAND LEADER
• DESIGNED THE 1992 OLYMPIC
OPENING CEREMONY IN
BARCELONA
• 1994 World Cup

12. AWARDS
• Guggenheim Fellowship (1982)
• Chaconia Silver Medal (1987)
• Doctor of Letters, Honoris Causa – from the University of the West Indies
(1991)
• Prince Claus Award (2001)
• Republic Day Award (2005)
• Trinity Cross (1996

13. HIS FIRST COSTUME WAS DESIGNED FOR
HIS SISTER
• When Minshall's mother asked him to create a costume for his adopted
sister Sherry-Ann Guy (Coelho) to wear for carnival 1974, it was the pivotal
event in Minshall's Carnival career. The costume he created was called
"From the Land of the Hummingbird".[2] According to him, it took five
weeks, 12 people, 104 feathers, each one made of 150 different pieces of
fabric. The costume was designed to allow its wearer total mobility and was
an immediate sensation. It also became a major icon of Trinidad Carnival.

15. THE HUMMINGBIRD
• Colour harmony
• Ease of movement
• Intricate design

16. MINSHALL MASS
• A STORY TO TELL
• A SPIRITUAL MESSAGE
• ORIGINAL IDEAS
• REVOLUTIONARY PORTRAYALS
• MASSIVE VISUAL IMPACT

17. CARNIVAL BAND
PARADISE LOST 1975
• The band was conceived in four "movements", like a symphony, and
introduced a form of winged costume based on Minshall's study of
traditional Carnival characters, which he would continue to develop over
the course of his career

20. TAN TAN AND SAGA BOY

24. • MOVEMENT
• PERFORMANCE
• DESIGN

27. PETER AND CONTROVERSY
• Why was the Carnival Community upset about these creations?
• He was a rule breaker
• He was not afraid to try new things
• He thought ‘’out of the box’’
• He married theatre and carnival in revolutionary ways

28. HIS EXPERIMENT
• Let the mass EVOLVE on the street by the players
• The band TAPESTRY was one such example
• Each player had a simple square of fabric and construction was not
complex
• Players went on stage and tied the cloth together in different patterns

29. LOOK UP PORTRAYALS OF EACH OF HIS
WINNING BANDS
• 1976 Paradise Lost
• 1979 Carnival of the Sea
• 1981 Jungle Fever
• 1987 Carnival is Colour
• 1995 Hallelujah
• 1996 Song of the Earth
• 1997 Tapestry

31. HTTPS://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/WATCH?V=I0
8U3YSIEAS