KEN MORRIS
1924-1992
THE MORRIS TOUCH
Ken's art turned
metal into mas
By Jeff Hackett
Express
April 5, 2000
Page 27
When he was a child he wasn't allowed to watch mas unsupervised on
the streets, but that was not stopping Ken Morris.
He would
quietly prise open the floorboards in the bedroom of his Belmont home and slip
into the Carnival.
Morris,
who succumbed to cancer in February 1992, would throw his head back and laugh
uproariously whenever he told this story.
It is one of several which illustrate the depth of his fascination with
Carnival and the copper artistry he introduced to it.
An
exhibition of some of his copper repoussé work is currently on at the Kiskadee
art gallery in St Clair.
A
book, The Other Gift, Ken Morris - A Retrospective written by journalist
Vaneisa Baksh and published by Uno Interactive Communications Ltd was launched
at the exhibition, which ends on Saturday.
Our
youngsters may never have heard of him but it could be said that Ken Morris was
the man who initiated the golden age of Carnival in the 1950s with his glorious
copper-work costumes.
Kenwyn
Arlotson Morris was born on March 11, 1924, on Duke Street in Port of Spain;
the fifth of six children of Maude and Robert Morris, an artistic couple from
whom he learnt the Carnival arts.
He
practically taught himself the art of copper repoussé (hammering copper into
relief from the reverse side) though he studied it briefly at Goldsmith
College, London.
Like
many Trinidadians of his era, he was very versatile and had several interests:
he was a pianist, a trade unionist and also painted in oils, giving up canvases
when someone told him that his style resembled that of a particular English
artist.
Morris
was a handsome man with chiseled features, sinewy muscles and skin the colour
of the copper he worked with.
He
worked in his old, wooden studio with a bottle of rum at his feet and when he
had company, the ole talk and laughter flowed as he transformed raw copper into
works of art.
Towards
the end of his life he formed a successful artistic alliance with masman Peter
Minshall.
In
Minshall's bands, Morris created the "elite corps" - the only section
that produced metal costumes. This
section had 15 to 20 masqueraders, mostly prominent people or veteran mas
men. Nightly, Dr. David Picou, then
head of a Government task force, Dr. Earl Timothy, and other distinguished
people would assist in producing these breathtaking costumes.
They
appeared to feel privileged to be in his company as he chattered and worked,
cheerily instructing them. Morris
worked swiftly with his hammer and small metal tools turning out ornate designs
with astonishing speed.
He
told me once that he worked in the medium of papier maché as a masman and in
copper repoussé as an artist. He
decided to fuse the two, introducing the metal to carnival.
"I
was looking for an outlet for my work and I wanted the public to know the
beauty of copper work and metal work.
Of course, in those days people looked at metal work artists as
tinsmiths."
The
result was stunning new look for mas presentations in Port of Spain in the
1950s as Morris' superbly crafted and glittering metal work featuring breast
plates and full-length metallic costumes in gold, silver or blue: head pieces,
chain mail, swords, shields and other military paraphernalia, which drew gasps
from spectators.
Celebrated
local artist Carlisle Chang noted in the book's foreword that "in 1954 Ken
introduced metal repoussé into Carnival costumes, choosing to work in copper
which was both readily available and easily malleable."
"It
was also glittering and seductive. He
did so for a group parading under the banner of Robert Ammon's Gods of
Olympus continuing with the portrayals of Richard II the following
year. By 1958 with the presentation of Atlantis,
the splendour of burnished copper had seized the imagination and Ken Morris
became a household name. The trend
continued over two decades, particularly successful under Harold Saldenah's series
on Imperial Rome."
"It
had to be described as the golden age because of the quality of the costumes
and the extravagance of the presentations: masquerades in metal and with velvet
coats, women in velvet clothing, all of which would be prohibitively expensive
today.
According
to Chang "…cheaper aluminium and plastics intruded and copper began to
fade off the parade route."
Morris
brought out his own bands but by the late seventies it was too much a financial
strain. Membership dwindled as
masqueraders could no longer afford "metal mas" and he found himself
dipping deeper into his own pockets to pay for music and other expenses.
Still,
he produced 12 bands between 1966 and 1978 when he gave up because of the cost.
By
1980, he had forged an alliance with the rising new star, Peter Minshall, who
had designed Paradise Lost for Stephen Lee Heung and had also the
revolutionary Humming Bird Carnival queen costume in 1975.
Danse
Macabre was
Minshall's 1980 presentation and partly with the help of Morris and his
superlative metal work, the Minshall legend began.
In
the 1980s, he worked on nine Minshall presentations, the last being Sans
Humanite in 1988, one of Minshall's masterpieces.
Minshall,
who has long acknowledged Morris' genius spoke at eh exhibition's launch of
meeting him as an "uninformed young radio announcer" in the early
sixties. As someone who knew little
about mas, he went to Morris with sketches of a costume for a contestant in the
Jaycees Carnival queen competition.
His
non-Carnival pieces, mainly abstracts, are in private collections all over the
world. The exhibition features over 50
of these pieces and is ample testimony to the genius of the country's greatest
copper repoussé artist.
LAUNCH OF THE
OTHER GIFT
By Michele Mills
Newsday
April 4, 2000
Page 17
The
launch of the book, The Other Gift - Ken Morris - A Retrospective took
place last Tuesday at Kiskadee, a cultural laboratory. The book reflects on the life of the copper
artist, the late Ken Morris and includes photographs of his many exquisite
works. Along with the publication of he
book, is an exhibition of his work at Kiskadee.
The
exhibition and the book are the collective efforts of a committee dedicated to
giving recognition to the artist who was perhaps best known for his copper art
in carnival. Members of the committee
included, Pat Ganase, Georgina Masson, Carlisle Chang, Frank Seyon and David
Rudder, who was actually an apprentice of Ken Morris and worked with him on
several pieces. The committee was able
to have many of Morris' works brought back from various parts of the world for
the exhibition.
Artist,
Peter Minshall, who spoke at the launch, described Morris' work as,
"hammering glory, power and magnificence out of metal." He made the point that even before it was
fashionable to think it, even before Minshall, Morris knew, "that Mas was
real art." It was this he said,
that drew him to work with Morris over a five-year period on his Carnival bands.
David
Rudder reminded the audience that though he was gone, "Ken Morris can
never die."
Publishing
Director of the book, The Other Gift is Frank Seyon.