"Faces of Our Time" Maylene Duncan carves a special niche for herself by Raschid Osman Guyana Chronicle September 5, 1999 IN our sometimes distinguished gallery of artists, Maylene Duncan has carved a very special niche for herself. Among these gifted persons who interpret the human condition for us, doing so with innovativeness and verve and a caring meticulousness, Ms. Duncan offers a body of work which does for the human face what Van Gogh did for the landscape at Arles. "Faces of Our Time" is the title of her one-woman show now on at Castellani House on Vlissengen Road in Georgetown. Her 35 pieces tell us a great deal about ourselves as the keen eyes of the artist capture some very every-day moments, freezing them in time, allowing us the chance to ponder on the bland episodes which fashion our existence, making us variously thoughtful and reminiscent and, unfortunately, just a bit embarrassed. The hallmarks of the Duncan technique are the stunning interplay she manages between light and shadows and the incredible gamut of expressions that animates the faces of her subjects. She makes use of hectic, muted swirls of colour to fashion motion in a set of pieces of children at play. This lends a pleasing exuberance to Young Cricketers, and The Big Ben Race, and Rope Dance in which the performers whirl furiously, much like spellbound dervishes. And then there is the interplay of emotions she conjures up so masterfully. Duncan puts three figures on a park bench, one elderly, bespectacled, a newspaper in his hand, the young woman beside him questioning, and the other one just listening, and the result is a richly textured symphony of human relationship, the unmistakable leitmotif being a healthy respect for one another. The Duncan people can be conspiratorial as well. She is quite at home with the tete-a-tete. The two girls whispering in Secret, the two women gaffing Over the Fence, and the other duo in Discourse are variations on a theme, including childish make-believe, adult exchanges and dark, sub rosa utterances which are best made in the shadows. Duncan does just as well when her cast is bigger and more complex. Her street scenes are ebullient and carefully composed, the people often looking at some point off canvas; and her Waiting Room is a study in repose and boredom and the paradoxically inquisitiveness of a child hanging on to every word of a conversation swirling about her. Many of the Duncan pieces gleam with carefully executed rims of sharp, golden light, the figures lined with a controlled effulgence, reminiscent of the Dutch masters. This is evident in her Food Seller series, the No:7 being different as still life-objects dominate, a Sprite bottle and jars and baskets pushing the sellers themselves into the recesses of the picture. Again Duncan departs from what is expected of her in Cane Call. Here, with snapshot immediacy, she crops her painting showing a strong hand cutting cane stalks in a field. There is no face here, and so the cane-cutter's labour assumes much significance, imbued with a golden light, signifying, perhaps, the now tarnished glory of an industry which once filled foreign coffers to overflowing. There is a more marked patina of gold in Rice Rhythms, where women winnow and pound in their mortars to a mute but insistent throbbing cycle. Two other pieces in the Duncan show deal with the labours of our people, but here the mood is sombre and earthy. In Work of our Foreparents One and Two, she composes a hymn to the toil and sweat and the grim, feral determination to survive that marked the not-so-long-ago era and those who laboured in it. Her labourers are two men unloading casks from a vessel, perhaps, and a woman in the field bearing a tray on her head. The men are lean and muscular, their trim torsos moving efficiently in the frozen rhythm the artist conveys so clearly. And as for the field-worker, she is Everywoman, strong and voluptuous, wide-hipped and full-busted, exuding both an engulfing sexuality and an indomitable resilience. Her feet are firmly planted in the ground, her toes gripping the earth as if drawing from it the sustenance necessary to her survival. The picture itself seems to sum up the Duncan mystique, the picture of a woman sure of herself and of what she wants, and who has harnessed the elements in her environment so as to draw from them what she needs to be complete and fulfilled. "Faces of Our Times" - Beauty in simple things by Linda Rutherford ART lovers turned up in a gaggle Monday afternoon two Mondays ago at the National Art Gallery, Castellani House, to regale one of their own on the opening her first solo exhibition. Titled `Faces of our Times', the 35-piece, multi-medium exhibition showcases the works and unique talent of Maylene Duncan, who, until 1996, was a tutor at the Burrowes School of Art. Marvelling at Duncan's ability to put together "such a huge exhibition, all on her own" in spite of her petiteness, former president, Mrs Janet Jagan, who declared the exhibition open, remarked that it was one of the largest she has ever seen by a single artist. Mrs Jagan admitted being particularly impressed by the piece entitled `Serious Times', in which three elderly gentlemen, faces alight with animation, are locked deep in conversation. She said she would never forget the expression on the face of the central figure. She was also quite taken with `Today's News', a piece depicting an elderly, bespectacled gentleman sharing a hot news item from a newspaper with two friends. "A tremendous painting", declared Mrs Jagan, adding that she thought the artist has done "a wonderful job of catching the facial expressions of Guyana on canvas". She said the reason the exhibition was so moving is because Duncan has done what no other artist she can recall has ever thought of doing: gone back to her roots. Duncan has, since 1997, returned to her native Wakenaam, one of the larger of the Essequibo Islands. She says she wanted to be close to her ageing aunt, who was her surrogate mother, and to spend "quality time" doing what she likes best - that is, painting. In a brief address at the opening ceremony, Duncan, who confessed to being "overwhelmed" by the moment, said art has always been a part of her life. "It has always been the first choice for me as a profession", she said. This is something with which an old school friend, whom she came across recently, is still to come to terms. Fully expecting Duncan to pursue a career in either banking or law, she wilted when she learnt it was art. Duncan said she brought up this particular anecdote to show that even in these enlightened days, art is still not treated with the respect it deserves. "It's still like a come-down profession for many", she said. Noting that life is not just about "bread and butter and a struggle to live", Duncan said she wished that more people would come to appreciate its beauties also. One does not have to conform to the norms of beauty to be beautiful, she says. There is beauty in even the simplest of things in life; like watching two people deep in conversation. "Just observing the manner in which they communicate is beautiful", Duncan said. Described by Castellani House Curator, Ms Elfrieda Bissember as "one of our outstanding young Guyanese artists and a national collection artist", Duncan, whose forte is really ceramics, holds a a first degree in Fine Arts from the University of Guyana (UG). Her exhibition runs until Saturday. A © page from: Guyana: Land of Six Peoples