In the run-up to Christmas I wasn’t posting as I was on one of my ‘walkabouts’ this time staying in Cape Verde studying the art of Portuguese Manueline style art – well, where I could – and taking in the sights.
Manueline was totally new to me before one of the tutors on my art history course brought it up and if its new to you too then here is the low-down on it. It is a Portuguese late Gothic style that has influences of Mudejar (okay, one of my favourite styles) and even Indian architectural ornamental leanings. I was fascinated by the inclusion of what looks like rope – a reference to a seafaring trading nation? – and as I knew that Portugal and later the Dutch had used the Cape Verde islands as staging posts I decided to investigate while I was staying there.
The rope side of things is obviously problematic as it has strong associations with the ‘goods’ that were traded at the islands, slaves. As you can see from the images below, there is a lot of poverty in the islands but I found it inspiring, not least due to a lot of misconceptions written about the archipelago by people who haven’t even visited it. Bizarre!
As always my reaction is to write about what I see and the things that make me go ‘hmmmm’ and I’m pleased to say that the resultant poem ‘If I Could Tell You About Cape Verde’ has just been published by Tropica Laced Literary Magazine (you can see it on their tumblr page: https://tropicalaced.tumblr.com issue comes out in June so this way you don’t have to wait J ). They were kind enough to offer homes to two other poems that aren’t Cape Verde related, one about my grandfathers pigeon shed (a pungent and brutal place) and the other about the harem gate aviary at Topkapi Palace along with two unrelated photographs. 
I’d also like to show how a contemporary ceramic artist has responded to African, Portuguese, Manueline, slave heritage of the islands with this beautiful and monumental vase called Africa. 
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