Consulate photo exhibition opens on-line and in person.

 Thousands of children making a Mas at the T&T Sheppard Avenue West consulate

 

Toronto photographer and filmmaker Jenny Baboolal has just finished installing a photography exhibition at The Consulate General of Trinidad and Tobago in Toronto that will put a little bit of Carnival warmth into this cold Canadian winter. 

 

The photographic exhibit called The Art of Mas”, opened yesterday at the Sheppard Ave W Consulate, and is available for viewing online. It is also in-person, on a limited basis, to those with appointments to access services in the building.

 

The photo show which runs until August 31st is all about Carnival in T&T, and specifically children’s participation in the annual event.   Baboolal has selected over 30 framed pieces which document thousands of children’s emotional engagement with the annua festival and documents the wide range of the junior costumes used in the Children’s Carnival.

 

Jenny Baboolal was born in Trinidad and is an entrepreneur, administrator, and practitioner in the arts. Carnival Photography has long been her passion and she has for decades been taking pictures at the Children’s Carnival both in Port of Spain and Toronto. Baboolal photographic exhibitions include solo shows at the Trinidad and Tobago National Museum, Toronto’s City Hall and Harbourfront. She has exhibited in group shows at the Royal Ontario Museum and with The Canadian Caribbean Photographers Arts Collective. 

 

“It is exciting, inspiring, and fun to experience and photograph thousands of children in a vast array of costumes, parading together in the company of family and friends. For me, the Children’s Carnival is a profound experience - pure magic.”  

 

When Baboolal isn’t taking pictures, making movies or working as the program coordinator for the Inner-City Angels Children’s Art Centre, she is preparing to start making a book based on The Art of Mas! 

 

“The Art of Mas really came out of a smaller very successful 3-day exhibition that was staged last August at the Pilot (a downtown Toronto Jazz Club),” she told the Camera. “I originally wanted to fill in the gaps for people that were missing The Toronto Caribbean Carnival which was cancelled last year. “

 

The Consulate thought The Art of Mas would help tell visually the story of Trinidad and Tobago. They asked the artist to expand last summer’s exhibition and leave it up longer. Because of Covid restrictions, a walk-through tour of Baboola’s show will be available soon for viewing on the Consulate Facebook page (www.facebook.com/ttconsulatetoronto.)

The building is located 185 Sheppard Ave in North York.

Stephen Weir