KING SAILOR : An exhibition of sailor costumes at the National Museum P.O.S.

Exhibition opening: Monday 29th April at 2:00 pm at your National Museumand Art Gallery.*

In a statement about 'Mas Man', Dalton Narine’s recent documentary on hislife and art, mas genius Peter Minshall paid tribute, once again, to thefancy sailor character:
“The mas had made something truly original, like the surreal fancy sailor,like nothing you had ever seen or imagined, so different, this extension orwidening of the accepted terms of human apparel.”
Now, the National Museum and Art Gallery of Trinidad and Tobago is pleasedto re-open our permanent Carnival Gallery with “King Sailor” – anexhibition of sailor costumes, drawings and photographs of the many avatarsof this seminal mas character.
In this show we present 'The Mt Hope Connection,' a Carnival archivebelonging to Keith Carrington and Keith Ramirez, whose Fancy Sailor bandhas been in existence for the past 29 years, although Carrington has been aKing Sailor since the 1960s.

According to Carrington, “The Mas camp is in Macoya. We move off from TheCorner of. Duke and Frederick Streets on Carnival Monday and Tuesday, andcontinue to partner with the St Michael Boys’ school. Since 2007 we havebeen participating in St Lucia’s Carnival, providing the only 70-strongSailor band accompanied by a steelband. We have many trophies at theband-house, we won Small Band of the Year three times.”
This exhibition also includes a series of discussions on “Archiving ourCarnival Arts”.  We hope this will encourage discussions and documentationof traditional Mas. The National Museum is committed to both thepreservation of the past carnival arts and the development of their futurein Trinidad and Tobago. 'The Mt Hope Connection' is a collaboration withThe *Carnival Institute of Trinidad and Tobago*, which has documented andconserved part of the collection.

National Museum and Art Gallery

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Cheewah reveals 'KING SAILOR'

It's not every day that a mas band or its band leader and designer lets the public see the designs of its King or Queen of the band. Some bands and their designers keep such designs top secret, a tradition that goes back beyond carnival competitions. Usually we (the general public) don't see the mas until its on the Savannah Stage during competition or on the road on carnival Monday and Tuesday.

This is not the case with Strictly Alternative Mas: (S.A. M.)

Last Thursday designer Darren X Cheewah  made public the design on the King of their Trinidad Carnival 2012 presentation 'X' on their face book group page.  The 'King Sailor'  design reveals a massive skull with the iconic sailor cap and a massive red cape with numerous flags with various designs on them. While the design does not give details on the materials being used or the dimensions of the mas, a lot of movement and 'play' can be expected from this King of X.

'King Sailor'  designed by Darren Cheewah.

This design follows the release of  individuals and section leaders that were posted 3 months ago on fb and those of the sections that were released after the band launch. I wonder what the Queen of  X will look like...

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