Art. Heart Attack

Oliver Benoit, 2009.

© Hegel Goutier

While being grateful for the tribute his country has paid to him, renowned artist Oliver Benoit notes with some bitterness: “In my country, people consider I am not doing Caribbean art”. This is because his work is abstract.

Yet who is closer to the concerns of the ordinary people of Grenada than Benoit? Everything seen, made out and interpreted in his work, beneath the surface abstraction, touches on daily life. And so he invites everyone to look more keenly, in order to see more than is visible at first glance. To get involved, because he wants to prompt and provoke questions, at the same time as making the act of viewing a pleasure. “I want to let people who look at it (his art) get involved, be engaged in the piece… I focus now on the role of politics, the way people are affected by it”.

One of the paintings in the ‘Outbursts’ series depicts bank notes bearing the image of Uncle Sam, and is entitled 'Dollar is my soul'. In this he expresses his pain on hearing about the allegations of corruption concerning a former leading politician. Regarding ‘Heart Attack’, he says, “This is political. The symbol of the new government is the heart”. He explains that, in the current national and international environment, the government, every citizen and the entire system are at risk of a heart attack.

At the Agora Gallery in New York, which displays his work, and in his virtual gallery at www.oliverbenoit.com, visitors can view his works under six themes: ‘Disasters and Emotions’, one of which is ‘Heart Attack’, ‘Love’, ‘After Ivan’ (hurricane Ivan), ‘Men without Head’, ‘Carving out an Identity’ and ‘Outbursts’.

Hegel Goutier

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