…But wait, something looks different. Maybe the light…maybe the flowers, maybe the grass.
Or maybe it’s me? Could this be a dream? All too familiar or deja vu (Def. FR already seen) this memory of having been somewhere, already having seen something, feeling like you’ve known that perfect stranger – somehow, maybe in another place and time. Yet something doesn’t quite add up. Something has changed.
I’ve Seen This Place Before, the first solo Exhibition by Sabrina Sinanan calls us in to pause, if only for a moment and steady our attention in this moment, to observe and even to question: how and why we’ve found ourselves here, now, at this specific time.
Detail: Time Unfolds (2024) Sabrina Sinanan
Acrylic and Mixed media on canvas
Space and place. A house and a home. Through this series of paintings and collage Sabrina Sinanan brings us to a place of stillness, of awareness, where we open our eyes and begin to see that there is history and story, everywhere – and in everything. She carefully unfolds the intricate tapestry where threads of the past, present and future are interwoven. The visible and invisible neatly sewn together, embellished by the material and the spiritual.
Every place and moment, an accumulation of the past, the present and a future.
Using her own story and exploration of the various types of Love – towards Self and others – as the subject matter for this exhibition, Sinanan opens up the windows to her world so that we may venture inside. Her interior landscapes reflect her absolute love of Nature, vibrant colours, textures, patterns symbolic of the patterns in the human experience. There is an abundance of tropical blooms, lush, dense foliage, cultivated beauty, joy alongside the uncomfortable undergrowth of struggle, loss, pain and anxiety.
Yet, beyond her own journey through womanhood, as child of Ka iri – Land of the Hummingbird (Amerindian name for Trinidad), mother, daughter, Caribbean, Sinanan explains that her work concerns everyone having a human experience, our connection to each other, our quest for self discovery, fulfillment, happiness and wonderment.
Beyond geographies, beyond socio economic status, beyond belief systems.
Detail: The Birth Within (2024), Sabrina Sinanan
Acrylic and Mixed media on canvas
Centuries after the Divine Comedy by Dante, aren’t we all still searching for the same things:
Love, meaning, purpose, freedom, eternity? To find the answers to our fears and uncertainty?
What are the patterns we’ve learnt?
How did we learn them?
Can we undo them?
What is the meaning of all of this?
Why are we actually here?
How could we be better?
To whom or what could we look to for guidance in dark times?
Nothing is new. All these questions are checkpoints along the path.
Sinanan’s series of paintings is deeply introspective and heartening. When an artist decides to create from a place of knowing, there is sincerity and there is immense bravery for it is psychological, sensitive and cathartic work. It takes great courage to reveal our truest selves to the world.
Detail: Flower of Creation (2024), Sabrina Sinanan
Acrylic and Mixed media on canvas
“Look closer at the present you are constructing: it should look like the future you are dreaming.”
Alice Walker
Could we remember the memory of things. Revisit the lives we have lived. Open our hearts to the magic in the mundane… Could we simultaneously travel through time, to a place where we dream together, and we collectively embody an ethic of love? as bell hooks encouraged us to.
What is the work we are making? What is the life we are creating ?
“Ya soy el futuro. Yo soy la vida.”
Julia Burgos
According to Puerto Rican poet, feminist, writer and teacher Julia de Burgos (1914 – 1953), to be alive and fully aware in this moment, means we are already the future. Each one of us: breathing, making, dreaming, doing, loving.
Could we be Love? Could we be loved? Could our legacies become defined by strength, care, resilience, peace, new visions…Would we learn from Nature and her patterns of resilience, blossoming, interconnected cycles and unstoppable growth…
After one time, is two time.
//.
Esta manana descubri
Al otro en mi
Perfil de encuentros
Que asaltan la memoria
Después del sueño
Librada la inocencia
Viajamos
Hacia ese universo solitario
Donde uno se descubre
Otra vez.
(ENG.)
This morning I discovered
The other in me
Meeting of portraits
That assaults my memory
After the dream
Innocence released
We traveled
Towards that lonely universe
Where one discovers oneself
Once again.
Ritual con mi sombra, No. 31 (1999)
Edelma Zapata Perez, Colombia
I’ve seen this place before.
Art Exhibition Sabrina Sinanan
17 – 21 September, 2024
Art Society of Trinidad & Tobago
Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago