Mac Farlane debate rages on

But a section of the presentation, La Belle Dame and Garcon de la Maison (The Pretty Lady and the House Boy), which critics say embodies racial undertones and skews the work of Michel-Jean Cazabon, last week landed the prolific masman in hot waters.

A photograph of two models from the controversial section, published in the newspapers and on social media, showed an elaborately-attired fair-skinned woman standing alongside a dark-skinned young man clad only in a pair of trousers and suspenders, perhaps suggesting, in the minds of some people, a liaison which existed in this country during the era of slavery. Mac Farlane, bowing to the controversy, has since pulled the section, saying last week on his Facebook page that the debate on the issue was healthy and that he had learnt a lot from the backlash.

“My intention was never to offend anyone or to come across as ignorant of our truth or to idealise insensitivity. It was to depict the clothing of the time,” Mac Farlane had said.

Critics also have pointed to a disconnect between the presentation, The Art of Living (which sought, in part, to reflect the architecture in several districts in TT during the 1800 and 1900s), and Cazabon’s work.

For author and historian Gerard Besson, Mac Farlane was a “coward” for pulling the section from his presentation.

“He should have stood his ground and kept the section,” he said last Wednesday.

“As an artist, a creator, he shouldn’t back down from that.” From an historical perspective, Besson argued there was nothing “fundamentally wrong” with the depiction but felt that the “house boy,” as seen in the photograph, should really have been a “yard boy.” “A house boy would really be dressed like a butler whereas he (man in the photograph) looked more like a labourer. That is the first thing that struck me,” he said.

Besson said it also was not uncommon for a “white, European person” to have black people at their home or on their plantation “working in the yard cutting bush.” He added: “There is nothing that is untrue about those two costumes as they appear. I don’t see anything that is racist about it. From a historical point of view, that is how it was. And that is how it still is.” Besson also pointed to a sexual connotation which may be ascribed to the depiction.

“There is a woman standing up there and there is this guy looking very handsome and suave so I don’t know if people are outraged because it seems to infer a sexual connotation. I don’t know if that is the issue,” he said.

“But from the point of view of the social content, I think the social content is true and I was surprised that Mac Farlane did not keep the section.” Cazabon, who was born in TT in 1813, died in 1888. The painter was revered for his portrayals of 19th century planters, merchants as well as workers and their families.

In August, the Government reclaimed the last of Cazabon’s collection - some 49 paintings - which were presented at a gala event, titled, Cazabon’s Legacy, hosted by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley, at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann’s.

Besson on Wednesday applauded Mac Farlane’s decision to portray the work of the celebrated 19th century artist in his mas presentation.

“The Afro-French creole part of Trinidad lasted for about 150-odd years and it is only since Independence that the Afro-French creole part of Trinidad has faded away,” he said.

“But that Afro-French creole Trinidad is something that influenced Trinidad for about 150-odd years. Calypso and Carnival itself comes out of that depiction.

“So, reaching back to that, I thought that Mac Farlane as an artist was being very true to the artistic impulse as the artistic impulse often expresses history.” Besson said the presentation took him back to the Minshall-esque era of Trinbagonian mas.

“Apart from the typical stupid costumes that you see today with girls only dressed in little beads, this costuming looked like fashion, both for the men and women, like Meiling,” he said.

“It looked real. I thought that this was the best mas I have seen since Peter Minshall brought out his various depictions some years ago. So, to see him back away, I felt that he should have ignored that and feel stronger for his art.” Besson said although “a few dozen people” may have made an uproar about the section, Mac Farlane should have been strong enough to remain true to his art.

“Art is supposed to make your heart beat a little faster. Art is supposed to make you think. Art is supposed to make you protest. Art is supposed to make you feel. So, if this photograph disturbed people, well I think that is successful art,” he said. Besson went on: “I think that the people who protested are in the category of the people who are very reactionary to everything that appears unusual or surprising and Trinidad is full of people who react off the top of their head to anything that is surprising or unusual. It is the fashion of these days probably driven by electronic media, in terms of the quickness and the availability of electronic media.” Further, he said the critics misunderstood the country’s history.

“I think they are reacting to the fact that a black man must not appear to be subservient to this white woman or her seeing him as sexual being,” he said.

“But the fact of the matter in history, or even today, is that there are white people who have black men who work for them in various capacities and those black men are not sexual objects.

“They are trusted helpers or friends. I think that is in the mind of a handful of the people and not in the fact of the situation.” Besson argued that there also was not anything wrong in a black man working for white woman or a black man having a white woman as a girlfriend, wife or lover.

“It is a normal thing all over the world,” he said, alluding to the Sparrow classic, Slave.

“Are we as a people now so insecure, afraid, that we do not see that picture.” Weighing in on the debate, historian Jerome Teelucksingh regarded Mac Farlane’s presentation as a manifestation of the work of creative individuals, some of whom may deviate from ideas that may be deemed to be commonplace.

“The artist, writer and artiste are well-known for their creativity, innovation and insight. It is accepted that their perspectives might differ from traditional interpretations or the public view,” he said.

For instance, Teelucksingh said, recent films such as 12 Years a Slave and Django Unchained have often strayed away from the historical facts and present a distorted film to appeal to the viewers.

“We have sketches, illustrations, handwritten letters and fragments of oral history from which we have been able to piece together aspects of the slavery era. However, not all of the incidents and relationships have been documented,” he said.

Teelucksingh, a lecturer in the Department of History at the St Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies, contended that the depiction by Mac Farlane was not pure fiction.

“There were instances in the Caribbean and United States, during the slavery era, when a male domestic would serve the lady of the household. It is well known that male domestics such as butlers were employed by the planter and other whites,” he said.

“We need to ask ourselves, ‘Would the public outcry be different if the costume portrayal was an enslaved black female standing alongside a Caucasian woman or an enslaved black male standing near to a Caucasian male? Would there have been criticism if two black males were depicted.

Teelucksingh argued that while many people were fully aware of the cruelty of the slavery era, others were not in tune with aspects of the era such as the architecture, cuisine, language, dress, informal relationships and the highly-stratified society.