Tam Joseph
Spirit
of the Carnival is a poignant, piercing commentary on the seemingly
ever-increasing, ever-conspicuous police presence at the annual Notting
Hill Carnival. The painting depicts a lone masquerader being penned in on
all sides by a menacing sea of riot-ready police officers. On all sides
of the figure, police with riot shields advance on the carnival reveller,
as if seeking not to merely contain or arrest him, but to silence and obliterate
him. For good measure, a ferocious police Alsatian strains on his handler’s
leash, snarling at the masquerader, having previously drawn blood. And yet,
the masquerader is resilient, unbowed, unintimidated. In the face of this
relentless hostility and aggression, the reveller continues to play mas.
It is this spirit of resilience and fortitude that enables the masquerader
to embody the spirit of the carnival.
Spirit of the Carnival is about a number of things. Chief amongst them of
course, the painting celebrates Black cultural and political resistance
and resilience. The body – be that body collective or individual –
can be attacked and wounded, perhaps even mortally so. But the spirit, when
strong, is unbreakable.
The painting also effectively functions as commentary on the ways in which
Carnival (and by extension, Black people themselves) are regarded within
much of the British population and mainstream media as being synonymous
with criminality. Each year, media reports of Notting Hill Carnival centre
on, or are accompanied by, tallies of alleged criminal incidents, unambiguously
suggesting that where and when Black people gather in number, criminality,
delinquent behaviour and trouble are never far away. (3)