Minshall in great griefthat

...as “Spiritus Mundi” denied to the world

Charles Kong Soo

Published: 
Sunday, March 5, 2017
Veteran designer and mas-maker Peter Minshall at his Federation Park, home. PHOTO: CHARLES KONG SOO

Veteran designer and mas-maker Peter Minshall was celebrated and honoured on Dimanche Gras (Carnival Sunday) as an icon among other artists. On Carnival Tuesday, his post-nuclear sailor mas, Spiritus Mundi (World Spirit)—meshing together Mary Shelley-like elements of classic robber mas and classic sailor mas was ignominiously deleted from the airwaves during the live coverage of the parade of bands and was replaced with a pre-recorded feed of North American Indian like an Orwellian erasure.

It had a devastating effect on Minshall emotionally.

In stark contrast to the “pretty mas” that preceded his band onstage, his dystopian sailor mas came on in deathly silence accompanied by Exodus Steel Orchestra with grotesque phantom heads and skulls and white banners with gaping mouths and empty sockets in silent screams, trailing suckered tentacles in their wake to resemble a bombed-out post-apocalyptic world.

Minshall said the band was meant to make an anti-nuclear statement to show the folly of nuclear proliferation and how the world had become a more dangerous place in the age of US President Donald Trump.

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  • Is it possible, that some technician , the person resposible for selecting the feed at the station, thought , that the silence meant that something was wrong with the sound, and tried to fix it while showing something else while doing so? Just wondering? In which case, it would not have been and intended slight, just ignorance and   incompetence.

  • "in the Trinidad Carnival it was all turned backwards to you like some offering animal and it was done with such gracious delight."

    A whole book could be written off that one sentence from Minshall!!!

    • Today it looks like everything is "turned backwards" in Trinidad.

  • Mr Minshall you're brilliant at what you do and has been admired for what you've done
    Stop the politicization of Carnival with stupid references to US politics with such diatribe.
    Let's keep making mas for enjoyment and gaiety
    Just another take.
  • The volume of inefficiency in the overall pictorial delivery of Carnival (mas) 2017 was overwhelming. What to say, no heads will roll, and those who do de stupidness, and others in authority, will say, that is nothing, it was the Greatest. 

  • It is very obvious by now that coverage of T&T Carnival is far from finish like the Soca Monarchy Voice sang and very unprofessional. The Ministry of Culture and Tourism go figure this out and look what you have done to a great Mas Icon In Peter Minshall. In addition to very high crime in Trinidad this will continue to hurt the tourist industry.
    • sad

       he needs to know this has been happening before and thats a reason he got out

       i guess this will be in the post mortem of 2017  carnival

       great article by martin daly summarises it well

         

      i

  • Was it recorded by any other source? If not-why not? Was a film crew embedded with the band? If not-why not? 

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