Asher Mains is a
representational, figurative painter from Grenada, West Indies. He
has been making and exhibiting his work extensively throughout
Grenada and Barbados for over 20 years. Drawing from references in
art history, West Indian traditions, and urban street art, Mains
often incorporates found objects and symbolic materials into his
paintings to tell a story about Grenadian culture and the
environment. He is represented by Art and Soul Gallery and is
currently an MFA student at the Transart Institute through the
University of Plymouth, UK.
In his current
project, Mains will be painting the portraits of cocoa farmers
throughout Grenada and giving these paintings back to the farmers.
His aim is to create a dialogue through portraiture about the
significance of agricultural workers on the island. Agricultural
work, along with the worker, is often overlooked. Mains wants to
bring awareness to this group of people and elevate them to a level
of importance not often associated with manual laborers.
Historically, the people represented in paintings are those seen in
society as having status and who can afford to have their portrait
painted. With this project Mains is initiating a conversation about
the social gap that divides who art is made for and who owns art
objects.
I talked more to
Asher Mains about this project and asked him what drew him
specifically to agricultural workers in Grenada.
It was a process
of really trying to come to grips with and unify a lot of the themes
with which I wanted to work. I ultimately came to the cocoa farmers
as subjects because I am interested in their story as a group of
people who are not traditionally highly regarded in
society. Agriculture is important and it's tragic in a way that more
young people are not entering this field of work. This community was
a good entry point for me because very few of the workers own formal
art objects, and very few of them have been publicly thanked for the
important work they do. It is a community that I feel will genuinely
appreciate the gesture I am offering, and I am also interested in
observing what happens as a result of this gesture. I love to think
that art can be more than decoration. I love what can happen between
the object and the viewer. Through this process, and at its
conclusion, I would love to be able to point to this project with
positive outcomes and say, "This is what art can be".
I also asked him
what he feels his role is as the artist in society.
Artists are interpreters of reality. This is a big
responsibility and involves having a lot of interests. There really
isn't anything that can't be used with art to tell us something we
either hadn't noticed or didn't know about our existence. My
interests, especially in this project, have to do with identity, the
interconnectedness of agriculture in our society, power dynamics, and
concepts of capital and ownership. My role in this capacity is to
communicate these topics in a seamless way so that the viewer can
have a new set of tools with which to interpret their own reality.
Art for social
change is a concept that has been developing in the art world over
the past fifty years, says Mains. He has always been interested in
people and interactions; he completed his undergraduate work in
intercultural studies, and subsequently delved into international
political economy with an emphasis in development. Expanding on this
interest, Mains' artwork speaks to “relational aesthetics,” a
term coined by French art critic Nicolas Bourriaud. In “relational
aesthetics” what is considered “art” is shifted away from the
art object, and emphasizes the human relationship to the object and
it's social context as the art itself. Mains’ current project is
less about his portraits as the center focus and more about
facilitating a positive social effect.
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