Carnival: Girl in the Box

'A Camera to Capture You With'

The Carnival Celebrations in Trinidad and Tobago cause me panic, tension and discomfort. In 2009 I decided to surrender myself to those feelings. I came out on to the streets dressed in a full length tunic, a mask/ box on my head and a camcorder strapped to my chest. I was dressed prepared for a symbolic confrontation. I was completely covered, so I was invisible but I had a camera to record every threatening moment that is the 'Parade of the Bands'.

All I did was follow the follow the bands as did many others who would not pay an exorbitant amount to play Mas barely dressed and within the barrier of rope and security guards. Some people interacted with me and surprisingly it was not too threatening. As I walked between crowds some people played the top of my box-head as a drum and others, much later in the night tried to get me to take it off. Surprisingly none of this bothered me; it was expected and somehow pleasant to have this kind of interaction.

This character functioned as a vessel to see and record but not be seen itself. The sensory experience were as traumatic as could be imagined. It was hot being covered completely; it was uncomfortable having to constantly adjust the costume; it was difficult to see through the eye-holes in the box and the music from the trucks were unbearably loud. Most astonishing was that the other people's behavior was not in any was assaulting to me. Somehow all my armor made me feel safe in the chaos. I was able to view them objectively as if I was watching them on t.v. , they were all 'nobodys' who could do me nothing.

Me in Costume during the Carnival in Woodbrook

Interestingly I learned much later in the year that Box Mas is another Traditional Mas that is almost completely extinct. In 2010 Adele Todd performed another version of it. More on her portrayal can be read on her blog http://adeletodd.wordpress.com/

At the end of the year I put for sale some of the documentation of this work at the Alice Yard Shop opening. Photos from the event can be seen on the Caribbean Free Photo's Flickr Photostream

Girl in the Box

Part I of the Machine

The Machine contains inherent values of Industrialization, Progress, Technology, ‘The Decline of Western Civilization’, World Wars, Human Suffering, Defects, Materialism, Consumerism, Commercialism, Mass-Production, Convenience, Destruction, Annihilation, Globalization, Modernization, Man-made, Deconstruction . It has forever changed the life of man kind; it represents phenomena that have followed the singular act of creating machinery to complicate and distort living. This relates to the idea of limits as convenience has been an underlying and false rationale behind these phenomena.

(I Am a Thinking Machine/Consciousness is a disease)

This way the Machine relates to the progress of man-kind but I also want to consider it as a metaphor and medium to understand the human being as a Machine itself. This provides a context for venturing into the philosophical realms that asks the questions, What is the human being? What are its components? What is human consciousness? What is the nature of this being?
The more parallels I can draw between the Nature of machines and the Nature of the human being would I be able to inform my vision of them as one and the same.

In November of 2007, I came up with an exercise in which I could pose these questions to myself through experience. This has since become the 'Girl in the Box' series.

Versions of 'Girl in the Box'

Two different edits from the 'Girl in the Box' series can be viewed below.


The first is Discomfort + Speed





The Second version was filmed by the BOOKMANN, from the original 'performance' at Alice Yard in November 2007.

Me in the T.V.

The MTV

The T.V.monolougue

Look into my t.v. and see my soul,
Look into my t.v. and see my insecurities
Look into my t.v. and see my eyes,
Look into my t.v. and see my breast size,
Look into my t.v. and see my Anxiety,
Look into my t.v. and see pain,
Look into my t.v. and see my pessimism,
Look into my t.v. and see my fear,
Look into my t.v. and see my prejudices,
Look into my t.v. and see my manic depression,
Look into my t.v. and see my life story.
Look into the t.v. and see reality.

The T.V. as Existentialism.
It is a basic visual media that links to the ever growing media-technology that extracts the human from reality and re-inserts it into a virtual reality or simulacrum. Within this frame the pseudo-reality glorifies aspects of human behavior that serves to objectify the human as a commodity in the machine of Western domination. The engine grease in this machine is a culture designed to objectify people ……