miscworld.com
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This is where you will find the work of Toby Laurent Belson… |
What is miscworld?
Well, consider what miss world is. A beauty pageant, an event aimed at glorifying the traditional patriarchal roles of women as physical objects of desire and an attempt to quantify that beauty as something a woman either has…or hasn’t. wherever you live in the world, this is your standard of feminine, female beauty.
Miscworld is nothing like that.
Miscworld is a world of mixing. Not much of a standard to be found here, if you’re looking for one, it’s all mixed up, following no set course other than what feels right at the time. Toby Laurent Belson often likes to start with a definition, an analysis that will lead to some clarity in his vision. So, let’s analyse…
Misc. is shorthand for miscellaneous, a word that derives from the latin miscellaneus, from miscellus (mixed), from misceo (mix). Wherever misc is found, it denotes mixing and mixing is something that Toby Laurent Belson has always felt close to, being a mixed person born of mixed parentage in a mixed community within a mixed city. Of course, misc can be found in other places: mischief (or mischheeeeeiiiiiiiiooooofffffff as some West Londoners would say), miscalculate (easily done when things are always changing), misconceive (again, easy to do when understanding is something we have to work on daily), misconduct (unacceptable actions and motives are everywhere if you care to look), misconstrue (one of a mixed society’s inherent dangers where clear communication can make or break a situation).
Toby Laurent Belson started in 2001 by designing and printing T-shirts to celebrate his home city, London. He followed these up by making some clothing that he found hard to define. He created multiple brands and logos that he felt could stand alone if needed and hence an umbrella was required to bring them together. As with many people he found a folder on his desktop titled ‘misc.’ This is where it all started going and this is what he went with as he finally found a label he could stick to.
Toby Laurent Belson also began in earnest to produce screenprints, drawings and paintings focusing on his local landscapes, displaying the work online and in local galleries and fairs.
In 2005 Toby Laurent Belson began his journey into Arts Education, forming the West Art partnership with fellow artist Mary West, to provide art courses and workshops for the young people of West London.
In 2007 Toby Laurent Belson formed Brownbaby, a community Arts group that works with schools, youth clubs and other community-based organisations to deliver arts projects to mixed communities. The schools and groups Brownbaby works with are fine examples of successful mixed communities who live, work, play and grow together.
As Toby Laurent Belson stands before an assembly to introduce a Brownbaby project, he notices brown faces before him of every shade. Whether European, Asian, African, American, Indian or something – as he is – in-between, these faces are brown. No matter how light or how dark, it is brown faces of all hues that we see in front of us and beside us. Simplistic labels of ‘White’ and ‘Black’ become unnecessary and incorrect and speak of past separations built on an ignorance and denial of the grey between us. ‘Black’ and ‘White’ become political labels or cultural signifiers in muddied socio-economic waters, carrying blunt messages and prejudices.
A Brownbaby is a baby born brown. A baby born brown is just that, a baby…born brown.
Toby Laurent Belson continues to live and work in West London.