Mas outside of Carnival

Richie Richardson is designer active in Fashion, Graphics and Masquerade!This interview was done January 2004, just before I took Mas production and Richie Richardson to Federal Plaza! For Artist Mosaics February Seminar! A fashion and masquerade designer as well as an accomplished Graphic artist, I spoke to Richie on another,seldom explored alternative in masquerade design!...

RR I designed for savage in 1991, I at that time decide that I would use an exhibit,rather than a traditional band fete to sell the mas…
BSS How did that work
RR Savage, when they came to me, were interested in “crossing over’ and basedon my experience, even though I had recently arrived, I had made some vital connections. Iapproached the Castillo Center in the village, they loved the concept and wedid that Show/launch there! It was an overwhelming success, which showedgreat potential for future expansion. I was able to see this potential. because I had not,come from a mas camp experience. I came from a mas studio, workingUnder Carlyle Chang, creating and designing, and exhibiting masquerade forInternational venues!
BSS So, Mr. Chang had been doing this for years?
RR Mr. Chang practically lived by this, He designed for bands, but for most of the 80’s , sorry for most of the 70’s he had moved away from designing and went full, scale into designing mas as an art form, while most mas men saw the actual mas as a temporary thing, that you do for a couple days, then discard. Mr Chang, however, noticed that people were picking up what we were discarding and exhibiting it! While we were discarding other people were curating what we were throwing away, and were getting recognition for keeping something alive, because we have this natural ability to constantly create, we think, that that’s enough! We’re missing out on a much bigger context, the context of documentation …and Caryle Chang was doing that.So it was already being done, this was my blueprint. I had learned, my introduction to mas, it was fitting then that when I considered doing mas…it would be natural that I did it as an artform!In 1991 I produced with Savage (Usa and in1997 I did Rage Xcess Rage, a J’ouvert band! Those were my only productions for the West Indian labor day celebration.In fact I’ve done more Halloween production than any other type...
BSS …. So you produce mas outside of carnival

...See entire text of Richie Richardson Interview
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Sandra Bell
Finally a female masquerade designer, who also exhibits, The interview I cannot wait to complete!