The Art of Carnival and Masquerading

Husband and wife team Carl and Lyn Gabriel are sculptors specialising in carnival arts, creating wire-formed sculptures that appear at carnivals and other large-scale festival celebrations across the country. They are also key advocates for promoting this traditional craft.

With an engineering and photographic background, Trinidadian born Carl ensures that the wire structures themselves are visible to show the history of the practice. Carl describes his work as ‘tribal art’ and strives to incorporate the stories he heard growing up in Trinidad and the influences of African gods such as Shango, one of the principle Yoruba deities.

“I believe that in every piece of work I do there is a kind of offering, an acknowledgement, there is a part of the work that is saying ‘thank you’.”

“My commitment to the past, to the culture, to tradition is what really drives me.”

Lyn was born in Trinidad and came to Britain with her parents in 1956. Lyn's father was a Pan Man, her mother was a Carnival Queen, and her uncle, Sterling Betancourt, was the first person to bring steel pan music to the UK in 1951. Naturally the whole family was actively involved in Notting Hill Carnival from its inception, and Lyn describes carnival as "in my blood".

The traditional music of the Trinidad carnival is Calypso. Like the elements of masquerade, Calypso is a form of music that challenges the status quo and offers musical critique through wordplay and lyricism. The word calypso is thought to come from the West African word, ‘kaiso’ meaning bravo or well done and has its origins in the practice of call and response, with performers and audience engaging with one another and the oral traditions of the Caribbean. Calypso was popularised in Great Britain by artists such as Lord Kitchener who arrived on the Empire Windrush and performed his famous, ‘London is the Place for Me’.

Accompanying calypso is the steel drum, or pan. As with most of the origins of carnival, the development of the steel pan is unclear, but many agree that it emerged as a formal instrument in the late 1930s and emerged from discarded oil drums from the oil fields of Trinidad. The early Caribbean Carnivals, and the development of Notting Hill carnival is associated with the playing of steel pans in bands as part of the carnival procession and joined by mas bands.
As Notting Hill Carnival developed, and music developed other music styles have been added to the repertoire including soca and reggae.

The following selection of images represent the photographs of Carl Gabriel and give a unique snapshot into the world of Notting Hill Carnival.