Rapture 2019: ADDICTED Theme pictures and Synopsis

In 2019,  Addicted Mas will be celebrating 10 years of existence at Notting Hill Carnival, whilst tapping into the energies that have fueled the ADDICTED journey.

From its inception in 2010 with the presentation 'CHAOS' ADDICTED was formed out

of the love and passion for our carnival culture, and driven by the love, energy, and passion of our masqueraders, whom for ten consecutive summers have supported and represented the brand its growth and philosophy of originality.

Our themes of the past have explored the strength and tenacity of human nature and the triumph of the Caribbean presence in the world and the possible futures we may face.

Our style has been influenced not just by the mas around us, but by histories, science, architecture, Soca, Rap, world events, and social commentary. Yet we have explored in our ten years the tip of the metaphorical iceberg that is ADDICTED.

In celebration of 10 years of Addicted and our relationship with the legendary mas band Cocoyea, we look back at the energy, creativity, love, and elation that we experience on the road….

the intense pleasure….

the intense joy….

RAPTURE.

The Colour Purple: According to the website the 'bourne creative',”the colour purple is associated with royalty, nobility, luxury, power, creativity, wisdom, peace, pride and independence.”  In Hinduism, the purple or violet chakra is known as the Crown Chakra and represents the transformation of spiritual awareness and creativity. And, in the Yoruba traditions, purple is a colour of the Orisha Oya, protector of women she is the Orisha of change and the four winds.

Starburst: The image of a star, sun or starburst is familiar to us all, from the scientific theory of the big bang to God the creator saying “let there be light”.  All life and creation are imagined to come from an explosion of energy. This explosion is depicted through the gold motif of a starburst throughout the female costume, sending beams of light and creative energy through a universe of light, one rapturous event after another. It is this energy that transforms to the spirit of Carnival, from the masquerade traditions of Africa to the celebrations of freedom in the Caribbean and its global expansions. We pay tribute to that energy in 2019.

This is RAPTURE!

Addicted Mas 2019

Designer: Stephen A. Armstrong

For more information go to : https://specialist-events.com/addictedmas/

ADDICTED MAS 2019 launch "RAPTURE" for NHC 2019

On Monday the 6th of May 2019 Addicted Launched with the band Cocoyea marking not only the sections tenth year of existence but also the relationship shared between the two carnival entities that started in 2010.
held at the Yaa centre cocoyea launched its 2019 theme of SANKOFA. The event was well received and RAPTURE  had a great response, check out this video that summarises the event. 

ADDICTED MAS 2018: ZENITH : Synopsis and costumes.

Zenith: The time in which something is at its most powerful or successful. It is also a point of time when the sun is at its highest point in the sky.  A culmination; a climax; a peak.

Mountains too have their summits the highest of them have snow covered crowns identifying them as lords of both landscape and skylines. To surmount these mountains and reach their peaks is a perilous journey, reserved only for the brave and the bold, who are prepared to look death in the face in the pursuit of reaching that Zenith. Many have died trying to achieve while others turn away from the challenge and perils of such a journey.  But warriors full of daring and desire face the greatest risk for the highest thrills.

Like the sun above and the mountains below it, we spend our lives climbing from the valleys of our existence aspiring to reach our Highest Self.

History is flooded with the names of individuals who reached their Zenith illuminating our hearts and minds with their abilities; from Usain Bolt to Floyd Mayweather, Michael Jackson to Beyonce, The Mighty Sparrow to Bob Marley; Marcus Garvey to Martin Luther King.  Those super-humans who rise to plateaus above us all, with seemingly effortless ease as if they were gifted with talents from the Gods, beyond mere mortals.

Ancient history also echoes with the names of those whom while in their Zenith transformed the world, Alexander the Great the Macedonian KING, considered one of the greatest military leaders of all time  conquered the known world by the age of 32 .Sundiata Keita founder of the Mali Empire overcame adversity and physical disability as a child to become a great leader before he died at 37.

Civilisations and societies too can rise to a cultural and economic Zenith, they supersede their predecessors or contemporaries be it Egypt, Persia, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, Mongolia, England the United States or China, Civilizations and Empires have risen levels of accomplishment that are without equal and almost unimaginable if not for the evidence of their presence.

Zenith is the realisation of ones highest self, the understanding that you have the power to change your environment, the awareness that you can influence positive growth in others, and doing so. Zenith is you determining your own future; creating your own destiny; implementing and achieving your own goals.  Zenith is knowing your limits and surpassing them, facing down your fears and conquering them, examining your strengths and improving them.

Either you are looking back at it, rapidly approaching it, or currently existing in it.  The Zenith is that point in our lives when we are at our most energised, the strongest we have ever been, the fastest, the most radiant, the healthiest and ultimately the most successful versions of ourselves.

Being in your Zenith is being at your highest.

Like the ice capped mountains of the world or a mid-day sun in the sky we are at the height of our existence right now.

This year Addicted looks at the Zenith as an analogy for our lives.  A celebration of the life force within us all, as we ascend to the peak of life's experience.

This is ZENITH, this is where your powerful now is!

The costumes

This year Addicted has chosen white to depict the theme of Zenith.

White does not just symbolise the ice and snow found on the tallest mountains around the world, but combined with the iridescence of AR stones and holographic foils, it reflects the radiance found in the spectrum of light that emanates from these snow capped mountains and the sun when bright and high in the sky.

White is also the colour of the Crown Chakra SAHASRARA) which is said to be our connection to the divine.

Among the Orishas White is the traditional colour of Obatala, this father of all Orishas,  Obatala holds influence over leadership, fatherhood, justice and geology, and is often symbolised by mountains.

RADIANT PRIME: This year addicted has produced a limited production individual costume radiant prime, this costume depicts light bursting from its source, an entity in her zenith

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Join ADDICTED MAS on the streets of Notting Hill 2018 and celebrate the Zenith of your life,

S.A. Armstrong

Addicted Designer

For more details go to: http://specialist-events.com/addicted-mas/

AFRO DOMINI; THE ADDICTED SYNOPSIS AND THEME FOR NHC 2017

The year is A.D. 2017 and the Addicted Mas section invites you to join us on a journey of realisation, revelation, enlightenment and new understanding.

Come with us and re-examine your past and present, through the
lens of Afrocentric eyes.

AFRO DOMINI

Afro Domini is the awakening of African history and consciousness.  It is taken from the Latin “Anno Domini (AD)” meaning “in the year of the Lord”, based on the traditional year of the birth of Jesus Christ.

Anno:  in the year of his age, taken from anno aetatis suae

Domini: originating from the word dominus, meaning “belonging to the lord god or lord master”

Because of Africa’s presence in World history and events, our designer believes that Anno Domini should be Afro Domini (belonging to Africa). AD is a term used in Western history to define every period of history by Latin Christian dominion, despite the fact that the African continent, its civilisations and histories have pre-dated, contemporised, interacted and interwoven with European history as a silent continuous and undoubtedly dominant partner in history.

Africa and her resources have been tied to humanity’s development in recorded and lost history. Her religions, social and spiritual philosophies have formed foundation blocks in every great empire and epoch in the history of man.  Her mythologies and cultural traditions have survived attacks and atrocities that span geography and time. Her people have been disseminated around the world via land, sea and air; all contributing cultural growth wherever they set foot.

HEGEMONY

Afro Domini is then the awakening and understanding that we are the inheritors of this hegemony.

In the Western cannon, the Motherland is depicted as a dark savage land and her people, an undeveloped nation lacking all necessities that can sustain quality living. When in fact, Africa is the giant that that holds the world on its shoulders. Her people on her lands and her people that make up the Diaspora are the creators of religion, language, music, beauty, fashion, philosophy, art, and society.

Afro Domini is the understanding that you do not sit at the bottom of every social ladder as depicted in the media; but you are the foundation stones of every great society. You are not a symbol of poverty, starvation, illiteracy, and death; but icons of strength, stamina, longevity wealth, knowledge, and immortality.

OUR COSTUMES

Our costumes consist of three main colours: Green, Gold and Black, two of which can be found in the flag of the Pan Africanism movement.  In the flag of Marcus Garvey’s UNIA, Black represented the people and Green the land of Africa. These colours, together with red, can be identified in the national colours of many African and Caribbean countries that share the pan-African philosophy.

Green and Black are also associated with the Oresha Ogun, god of labour, war and technology.  It is said that Ogun clears the roads, and was the first of the Oreshas to come to earth and make a home for humankind.  Ogun is the energy that sustains life and motion, constantly evolving and manifesting in form as we develop.  When the demands on our energies change, Ogun adapts.

 MAS WITH A DIFFERENCE

Afro Domini is an African theme but not an ‘African mas’. In the   The design was also influenced by the rebirth in afro centric awareness in the mainstream society today, especially in fashion. 

tradition of African mas, there are
motifs which are influenced by the African masquerade traditions.

The male headpiece and chest plate draws influence from the Zulu warrior’s traditional costume. The triangular motif throughout the costume echoes that of traditional African design in sculpture and clothing.

 

 The female leg pieces and wristbands are both designed with strips of cloth, a tradition of Carnivals in the Caribbean with its roots in West Africa. Like her counterpart, the triangular and diamond motif is repeated on the leg and armbands.

The stylised sun burst on the skirt, which is repeated on the tiara and headpiece, not only echos Egyptian iconography, but symbolises the awakening and understanding of AD - seeing yourself in a new light that illuminates the past, present and future.

 

 

The loincloth/skirting on the female carries a motif influenced

by the fashionable print seen today.

OUR THEME

Like ZeroFive Fifty, Kingdom come and Unstoppable, Afro Domini is another commentary on of the   Once again the philosophy of Ethiopianism and its base in Psalm 68; 31 “Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands onto god” and the belief of the Hebrew Israelites whose ethos lies in the scripture of  Deuteronomy 28; 68 “The Lord will send you back in ships to Egypt on a journey I said you should never make again . There you will offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves” have been used by the designer as the philosophical foundation blocks of the theme.

importance of Africa, her Diaspora and the present Caribbean’s contribution to global development.

Africa’s history has been one of ‘running her jewels’. All her resources including her people, a people the ancient Greeks once believed were so beautiful the Gods dined only with them, have been and is still sought after by her global neighbours. The gold around your neck, the diamonds on your fingers, and the Coltan in your mobile phones. Africa, while excluded from the pages of Western history has spread her arms around the world, her story is not always a beautiful one but her dominating presence is a historical and contemporary fact.

How else can the meek inherit the Earth?

AFRO DOMINI

S. A. Armstrong
Addicted Mas Designer 

Broadway to Biennial: A Carnival Timeline 1930-2015 By Claire Tancons

 "With Caribbean migration to and from European colonial capitals and North American urban centres, Carnival, and other festivals such as Junkanoo, have influenced and in turn been influenced by artistic developments and social events around a reconfigured, postcolonial, circum-Atlantic circuit.

This timeline chronicles the creation of diasporic pan-Caribbean carnivals from Harlem to Notting Hill in the pre-and immediate post-Independence era, as well as in Brooklyn and Toronto in the mid- to late 1960s.

It traces the emergence of Caribbean carnivals and festivals on theatre, dance, and Broadway stages in New York and London, in metropolitan contemporary art galleries and biennials from São Paulo to Havana to Gwangju, at the Olympics and other games since the 1980s as well as in protest and other movements, all the way to Occupy Wall Street.

 Cursory yet never compiled before, this account seeks to record the impact Carnival has had on contemporary artistic and curatorial practices as well as critical discourses on art and performance, participation and the public sphere among an increasingly global ever growing number of creative domains. It highlights the contributions of artists, critics and curators, many of whom are collaborators of En Mas’, while pointing to the way in which these events have provided benchmarks for their practice–from Lorraine O’Grady’s attendance of the Caribbean Carnival musical in Boston in the 1940s to Marlon Griffith’s experience of Peter Minshall’s Rat Race in Port-of-Spain in the 1980s.

Like most exhibitions about the Caribbean produced in the English speaking world, this timeline is predominantly about the English speaking Caribbean even as it strives to account for accomplishments in the Spanish and French speaking Caribbean as well—even as it also shows how Carnival continues to dismantle such boundaries in a post-colonial, multi-focal, global arena.

 Like En Mas’ , this time-line places a great emphasis on the Trinidad Carnival and its diasporic exports, due, in part, to the unprecedented reach of the Trinidad Carnival model—akin to, say, the recognition of Jamaican music globally.

 And like En Mas’ as a whole, it is only but a bench-mark towards further studies and future creative endeavours." (source;Claire Tancons)

For more on 'Broadway to Biennial' use this link.