MARIGOT—Many of the regatta winners at Port de Plaisance on Sunday went home with trophies made by St. Martin artist Claudio Arnell. Arnell was commissioned by the Heineken Regatta organization to create trophies to complement the usual perpetual cups and trophies presented by sponsors or elected government officials every year.
The trophies were certainly unusual but at the same time entirely appropriate. These were pieces of scrap metal from boats, mostly steel and aluminium, collected in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma and then designed and sculpted into shapes by the artist.
The project in fact was a collaborative effort involving Axum Art Café and FKG Rigging whose machinery helped turn Claudio’s vision into reality.
“Like most people, I was on the island for Irma and this project became a therapeutic workshop and creative process for me,” Claudio explained. “Normally I am painting and doing photography, but I realized from sculpting and touching the textures and substances of the metal, it had survived the same experience we went through with Irma.
“So, I wanted to keep that raw aspect of the metal and not cover it up or decorate it. I wanted the pieces to reflect the nautical world and to stand on their own as individual sculptures. To have their own identity, and not lessen the impact of Irma.
“I wanted to create a collection that would stimulate dialogue, or confrontation even, with Irma. In a way this is my response to what happened to me and to my island on that fateful day. I love the balance between abstract and figurative work. This was a fun process that enabled me to use another medium to express my creative thoughts.”
From the time he was awarded the commission the project took about a month to complete. The metal was collected at various times after Irma, at the time when there was emphasis on recycling.
Claudio was one of several artists exhibiting in the large tent at Port de Plaisance during the four days of the regatta. Aside from the metal sculptures, he displayed a collection of photographs and paintings. Once again, this latter work was inspired by Irma. Who could imagine photos of sheets of twisted galvanized zinc could have any artistic merit? But it takes an artist to turn such mundane and ubiquitous objects into art.
“These were photos taken on one of the dumps in Grand Case,” he reveals. “They are still photos. I never try to place the pieces because I look for the lines that are already there, and then I try to accentuate the construction and deconstruction of lines. Breaking boundaries and barriers and lines has always inspired me. I never work with photoshop. Before the snap is taken, I push my camera to the maximum with boost and saturation for colour. Colour is always something emotional for me and it represents the Caribbean.”
Claudio Arnell is a graduate of the renowned École des Beaux Arts and today teaches art and fine art in the Lycée and Collège Mont des Accords. He returned to St. Martin in 2016 after a 10-year sojourn in Europe pursuing his art and holding exhibitions. He is well known in St. Martin for designing the pelican emblem used by the Collectivité on its correspondence and letter heads. The Collectivité had launched a competition for the design of a new emblem in 2009 and his winning design was subsequently announced in 2010.
He is very proud of that achievement and even more so when he discovered the emblem was incorporated into the back of the new driving licenses.
“That emblem has proven to be the most powerful symbol of the work I have done in my life so far. It has been very well received in my exhibitions. I would love to recreate a new visual of it, now that it is ten years older.
“Today with the whole Irma situation, the pelican in the emblem taking off is very relevant. It’s a vision of flight, of not letting ourselves be grounded in despair, but soaring to new horizons and opportunities.”
