This past Friday, I attended my second event at Alice Yard: the opening for Jemima Charles’ Cones installation. Ms. Charles is a young Trinidadian artist whose interest in paper led her to study art in Japan. The construction of Ms. Charles’ cones are drawn from the paper lantern technique, which is also used sculpturally at the Nebuta Street Festival in Aamori, Japan. Ms. Charles explained to me that her fascination with cones stems from cones’ presence in our every day life, and in particular, the retinal cones in our eyes that allow us to perceive color. Ms. Charles’ cones are made of paper panels, skillfully glued onto a wire frame, and then painted with paraffin wax to resist paint that is applied once the wax is dried. The cones are then placed on lights, to mirror the way our eyes need light to perceive color. The exhibition featured cones painted by the artist herself as well as select pieces by members of the Port of Spain community. For more information about Jemima Charles’ work, please visit http://jemimacharles.blogspot.com. For more information about Alice Yard, please visit http://aliceyard.blogspot.com.