The message has already been conveyed to family members and close friends that, given the state of the personal coffers and the fact that most of us have too many material possessions anyway, they should be looking elsewhere this season for Christmas presents of the corporeal kind. A certain development taking place on the Trinidadian retail scene this coming Saturday (December 19), however, is seriously threatening to make me rethink my position. Needless to say, this pisses me off royally.
I refer, of course, to the opening of the shop at Alice Yard, the artists’ space at 80 Roberts Street, Woodbrook. Why the Alice Yard people don’t stick with what they do best (which, judging from recent goings-on, involves chopping onions with a cutlass and throwing shovelfuls of dirt on people) and leave retailing to real businesspeople, is beyond me. If I end up going there on Saturday and leaving with my arms full of “artists’ limited editions and multiples, design objects, and some original artworks,” regardless of how “reasonably priced and. . . affordable to beginning collectors”, I’m going to be really annoyed.
You’ll find more details on the upsetting event at the Alice Yard blog. Which should tell you everything—what successful retailer in Trinidad has a blog?
lol. nice one, georgia.
This proved to be a very successful blogging technique, I just HAD to read this
Humans love conflict and drama, I guess…
If you’re annoyed now, wait till you see some of the nifty objects included in the exhibition + sale….
Your online marketing is superb. I wish I could stop by to do my xmas shopping … I might actually enjoy it then.
Oso, the new Shop website will go live in a couple of days–so you won’t need to physically stop by to do your shopping!
I don’t know why people keep insisting this is marketing. Alice Yard is genuinely in my bad books…
UPDATE: A close reading of my post and a glance at the profile of the Flickr user who took the photos linked should demonstrate that the owner of this blog is in fact a big supporter of Alice Yard. I As not everyone is able to recognise irony, however, I ask readers to please ignore the comment above.
Clearly you are clueless about what took place here and chose to give your pen liberty to express your ignorance. I will elaborate just to lead by example. This is a performance art piece done by an avant garde artist utilizing materials, images and movement to tell the story of her work. If you had taken a moment to ask a question or do some research you would probably have been enlightened or even educated on this artform. Please take the time to responsibily report on events that you witness.
It is better to be pissed off than to be pissed on.
Marc – my post was meant to be ironic. You seem to be the only of my readers that didn’t get the point!
I am a big supporter of Alice Yard. The photos of Akuzuru’s performance piece were in fact taken by me.
I thought it was a little too straight to work as irony. You had me confused rather than in on the joke. I thought “Why is she pissed off at a shop? She must really hate those guys. But she hangs out there all the time. Weird”
Christopher – but you got that they were opening a shop, right?
I suppose, but it wasn’t completely clear whether or not I should be for or against the store
Fair enough, Christopher. I thought the stilted style of writing, the use of hyperbole etc was sufficient proof that irony and humour were at work here (the post is also tagged “Humour”). But I acknowledge that not all readers experience a piece of writing in the same way.
This blog post (and comment thread) may just be the greatest thing since sliced bread and the remote control. Had I not been in a public place while reading this, I would have stood up and applauded.