Masquerader Sherry-Ann Guy (L) and Carnival designer Peter Minshall (R) with some of the trophies honouring the costume ‘From the Land of the Hummingbird,’ one of his presentations for the Trinidad and Tobago 1974 Carnival season. Capture of existing archival photo by Janine Mendes-Franco, used with permission. Fifty years ago, during Trinidad and Tobago's 1974 Carnival season, designer Peter Minshall forever changed the collective sensibility regarding what was possible with masquerade. It wasn't that the stage at the Queen's Park Savannah — the mecca of the Carnival experience in the heart of Port of Spain — hadn't seen splendour before. The golden era of Trinidad Carnival in the 1950s and '60s saw “mas men” like George Bailey and Harold Saldenah bring historical portrayals to life with great pomp and circumstance, while designers like Geraldo Vieira prided themselves on pushing creative boundaries through pyrotechnics and feats of engineering. Yet, there was something different about Minshall's “From the Land of the Hummingbird.” To begin with, it was a child's costume, made for his adopted sister Sherry-Ann Guy to compete in Kiddies Carnival that year. Meant to depict a hummingbird in flight, it was mesmerising in its simplicity, and stunningly effective on stage as either the sun or the stage lights caught the portrayal's iridescent wings while the masquerader danced. So game-changing was the costume that, among other prizes and accolades, it won the coveted Junior Carnival Queen and overall Individual of the Year titles, catapulting Minshall into the limelight and laying down the sturdy foundation of what would be an outstanding career in mas-making. Prior to his involvement in Carnival, Minshall had primarily been working in London as a theatre designer. After “From the Land of the Hummingbird,” however, his artistic consciousness became intimately aligned with Trinidad's annual sacred ritual. That unique lens through which he saw everything allowed Minshall to build a career as an artist whose work has been seen on some of the world’s biggest stages: three Olympic Games, two World Cups (one cricket, one football), collaborating with Jean-Michel Jarre on two of the largest open-air concerts in recorded history and, perhaps most beloved of all, his contributions to Carnival. A view of the Queen's Park Savannah, where Minshall's mas was performed and participated in by both masquerader and spectator, from Killarney, where the ‘From the Land of the Hummingbird’ exhibit was staged. Photo by Maria Nunes, used with permission. To commemorate the impact of both the costume and its creator, a free public exhibition was launched at Killarney — a heritage castle on the western side of the Queen's Park Savannah — to mark “From the Land of the Hummingbird”‘s 50th anniversary. To create the costume — though to Minshall, it was first and foremost a work of art — it took him and his 12-person team five weeks to get it right, giving Guy the mobility she needed to really “play the mas” and make the creature come alive. The exhibit, curated by Kathryn Chan, who worked closely with Minshall from about 1987, opened on January 23. It allows visitors to get an up-close-and-personal look at everything from the designer's early working drawings to the only known surviving film footage of his 1974 presentation. The commissioned model of the costume's scale and structure at the exhibit. Photos by Maria Nunes, used with permission. It also included a specially commissioned, expertly tailored model of the costume's scale and structure, a selection of Minshall's drawings for the formative work “From the Bat to the Dancing Mobile,” and photographs and artefacts from the artist's extensive private archive. In an effort to continue to gather further documentation on the mas, patrons and Carnival enthusiasts were also invited to share their own stories and photos with the curators and archivists. Via email and phone, I interviewed Chan about the exhibit and the impact and legacy of Minshall's work. Her curatorial starting point was to offer some insight into Minshall's process — the sheer number of drawings and sketches he does in order to bring his ideas to fruition. “These sixty-five working drawings for the hummingbird,” Chan says, “done early in his career, are a neat sample to explain thoughts to people like me, who take the work from drawing, through making, to life. I wanted to share the layers of thought of the artist alone in his studio. Looking closely, you will see that he thinks through construction, shape, materials decoration, references and technical drawings.” Some of Minshall's sketches and technical drawings at the exhibit. Photos by Maria Nunes, used with permission.