Between two worlds with Bunty O’Connor

Having lived three years in the country in Colombia, I know the feeling — cut off from the comforts of the city but revelling in the peace, the quiet, the clean country air. And even so, I have a childlike delight in the ‘Alice’ piece itself partly because I still enjoy reading that book from time to time and feel any child visiting O’Connor’s exhibition “Between Worlds” — which opens at the Art Society of Trinidad and Tobago on Tuesday - must be intrigued by peeping through that tiny door — until someone takes away the front to reveal the garden.

Well, as ever, art and the significance of particular pieces lie in the eyes of the beholders. Some may prefer “Ground Provisions” with its leaves and flowers of the plant before it was plucked out of the ground. Others tell the tale of the clown defeating the devil, carrying him off in a wheelbarrow. The Birdman, one of three ‘actors’ in this exhibition, reminds one of Papageno in Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” while the turtle, the piece of Amerindian furniture, is precisely what it’s supposed to be — a stool, but with sturdy human feet.

I’ll leave Newsday readers to make what they will of the pipe piece, “Woman with Gardenia” and “Triangles” (three large pieces all the same shape but of differing colours) and simply enjoy the clay piece “Madamas”

For the rest, the snail “Coming out of her shell” and “Tea with the Arabs” are amusing pieces while “Gargoyles (Dengue Nightmare)” is a tortured, nightmare-ish piece of sculpture of the agonies of fever and a close brush with the Grim Reaper.

However, this is but a brief sampling of the 38 pieces in the catalogue for this show. Remember the date: Tuesday February 3 and be sure to drop by the Art Society in Federation Park before the exhibition closes on St. Valentine’s Day.