Public Artwork
Canboulay
Artwork creator(s):
Mollineaux, Melinda
Text author(s):
Mollineaux, Melinda
Installation year:
1992
Remarks on location:
Installed in brochure racks on the British Columbia Ferries, at the Vancouver Tourist Information Centre and at various other locations
Description:
Flyers placed in various displays
Text of the artwork:
[recto]
can·bou·lay
(kan-boo’lă) n. [Patois<Fr.cannes brulées.]
1. Orig. a celebration of freedom from slavery.
2. A traditional nighttime procession with
Costumes, drumming&music to announce the
Beginning of Carribbean Carnival Masquerade.
Var. Mardi Gras, Caribana, Caripeg, Carifest,
Cariwest.
---
At the time carnival flourished the
elite of society was masked or
disguised. The favorite costume of
the ladies was the graceful and costly
'mulatress' of the period, while
gentlemen adopted that of the garden
Negro, in Creole, negue jardin, or
black field slave. At carnival time
our mothers and grandmothers have
even danced the belair to the African
drum whose sound did not offend
their dainty ears, and our fathers and
grandfathers danced the bamboula,
the ghouba and the calinda…Sometimes
also the negue jardin united in bands would
proceed on evenings to the cannes brulees.
Their splendid march with torches through
the town streets imitated what actually took
place on the estates when a plantation was
on fire. In such cases labourers on the
neighbouring estates were conducted there
alternately, day and night, to assist in
grinding the burned canes before they went
sour, thus the cannes brulees.
---
Paris · Orleans · Santo Domingo · Port-Au-Prince
· Pointe-à-Pitre · Soufrière · Roseau · Fort-de-France
Castries · Kingstown · Bridgetown · Scarborough
Port-of-Spain · Kingston · Havana · Rio de Janiero
New Orleans · London · New York · Toronto
Winnipeg · Calgary · Edmonton · Vancouver
[verso]
Canboulay : We dance to the drum whose sound does not offend our dainty ears. Melinda Mollineaux, 1992.
OUT OF
PLACE
A project with the Vancouver Association for Non Commercial Culture.
Thanks to Harry and to Bill Boutin at Key Colour Photo Lab Ltd.
Text theme:
Etymological definition of Canboulay; encyclopaedic or anthropological account of Canboulay; tourist destinations here and abroad
Artwork theme:
Blurring of categories between exotic and domestic and between home and other; ethnocentricism, passivity and commodification of tourism, recreation and leisure.
History:
Exhibition Out of Place, organized by the Association for Noncommercial Culture
Event date(s):
1992 Dimensions:
Height:
0.22m
Width:
0.1m Note(s):
In the text, special characters, which are present in the work in postcard form, are omitted, namely phonetic information on the first letter "a" and on the two "o"s in "(kan-boo 'la)" (second story of the text).
Artist's biography:
Mollineaux, Melinda Document(s):
Syndicate
