533:(1983) began the trilogy of bands that many consider Minshall's magnum opus. The queen of the band, "Washerwoman", represented life and purity; the king, "Mancrab", was a symbol of greed and technological madness. In Minshall's narrative, these two characters battled over the souls of the River People, portrayed by the band's ordinary masqueraders. On Carnival Monday the River People danced in the streets dressed in white cotton, like a stream of purity, under a rippling white canopy three-quarters of a mile long. On Carnival Tuesday, "Mancrab" triumphed over "Washerwoman"; as her lifeless body was carried away, the River People doused each other with paint of many colours in a ritual of pollution, until the once-pristine masqueraders were a uniform muddy purple. The
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581:(1997). The entire cycle was an immense, baroque, overtly theological praise-song, referring to creation myths and religious images. Depressed by the growing commercialism of Carnival and the decline of the traditions his work had always drawn on, Minshall produced a series of sardonic bands in the late 1990s and early 2000s--
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Minshall's costumes have sometimes been called "dancing mobiles". "Mas" as he conceives it is performance art that combines the qualities of sculpture with those of movement. Each costume is designed with the motion of the performer in mind, so that performer and costume are one. "I provide the means
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When
Minshall's mother asked him to create a costume for his adopted sister Sherry-Ann Guy (Coelho) to wear for carnival 1974, it was the pivotal event in Minshall's Carnival career. The costume he created was called "From the Land of the Hummingbird". According to him, it took five weeks, 12 people,
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Minshall claims that mas—"living art that we make fresh every year"—is the truest artistic expression of
Trinidad. "Our aesthetic is performance, the living now." A major aim of his life's work has been to prove that mas can be "high" art, as capable of the sublime or the universal as any other
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paraded through the streets of the city, a grand narrative unfolded, astounding onlookers. One observer, the photographer Roy Boyke, remarked: "It is doubtful that the work of any single individual has had so searing an impact on the consciousness of an entire country."
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Peter
Minshall designed Carnival costumes for various relatives and family friends, even before he left school. At art school, he wrote a thesis on the bat (a traditional Carnival character) and his first major theatrical commission, for a production at
569:(1990). The queen and king of the band, "Tan Tan" and "Saga Boy", are among Minshall's most popular creations, giant puppets that danced with lifelike mannerisms in the streets. Minshall's began his second trilogy in 1995 with a band he called
493:. The band was conceived in four "movements", like a symphony, and introduced a form of winged costume based on Minshall's study of traditional Carnival characters, which he would continue to develop over the course of his career. As
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was a sarcastic response to criticisms that his work was not reflective of
Carnival. Another characteristic of Minshall's work is his focus on social or philosophical issues. His work is also controversial at times; his 1995 band
601:, an army of "urban samurai cowboys and -girls" marching against hate, selfishness, disease, and prejudice. The band was partly sponsored by the National AIDS Coordinating Committee of Trinidad and Tobago and had an explicit
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for the human body to express its energy," he says. His bands are never merely costumed parades, but exercises in total theatre, using music, drama, dance, and visual spectacle to communicate a metaphor-rich narrative.
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104 feathers, each one made of 150 different pieces of fabric. The costume was designed to allow its wearer total mobility and was an immediate sensation. It also became a major icon of
Trinidad Carnival.
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529:(1982), which consisted of 2,500 masqueraders wearing ten-foot butterfly wings in a huge meditation on the ephemeral nature of life, was another Minshall landmark.
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Please remove or replace such wording and instead of making proclamations about a subject's importance, use facts and attribution to demonstrate that importance.
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resulted in a petition by 208 Pentecostal pastors who deemed the name blasphemous. However, Minshall refused to change the name.
597:(2002), a band of colourful dancing birds. He produced no bands in 2004 and 2005, but in 2006 Minshall returned to Carnival with
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on July 16, 1941, but moved to
Trinidad as a small child after his father took a job as a cartoonist. Growing up in the capital,
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In addition to designing mas, Minshall has worked on a variety of performance projects. In 1985, he led
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from a young age. He made his first costume at the age of 13. He attended
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artist (described colloquially in
Trinidad and Tobago as a "mas-man").
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565:(1989), before Minshall conjured up a dream of joy and harmony in
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from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially
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The following year, Minshall designed a band for London's
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Masquerade trilogies and award-winning performances
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191:of quality, and to make it neutral in tone.
76:promotes the subject in a subjective manner
53:Learn how and when to remove these messages
837:, Looking for the wild blog, 1 March 2014.
256:about living persons that is unsourced or
962:Alumni of Queen's Royal College, Trinidad
407:Learn how and when to remove this message
389:Learn how and when to remove this message
327:Learn how and when to remove this message
207:Learn how and when to remove this message
98:Learn how and when to remove this message
886:"Peter Minshall – Millennium Man of Mas"
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593:(2003)--relieved only by his joyful
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906:"Mas Through the Eyes of a Master"
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816:"Peter Minshall – Mas Innovator"
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846:"Minshall – Man of Mas"
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835:"The Face of Carnival"
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716:– from the
577:(1996) and
457:in London.
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185:clean it up
941:Categories
804:References
773:Hallelujah
684:air dancer
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