A Great Day in Trinidad and Tobago’s History – A.T.

I can’t believe you were in that house embroidering for 5 days

Today I ended a chapter in my work from many perspectives. Ended is a large body of embroidery on violence in Trinidad and Tobago. Certainly it is not the last of making these pieces that I have focused on for a decade. Yet, ended is the requirements taken to research this topic.

The space chosen for this departure was the University of the West Indies. A space called ‘The House’, on Warner Street. An old colonial bungalow, practically forgotten. Used for classes, but bereft of care.

The show continues to the 28th of August, 2009.
Titled Police an’ Tief, I look at crime in Trinidad and Tobago from four perspectives.
The police,
The criminal,
The judiciary and
The victims.
The colour choices for each grouping:
grey,
brown,
yellow
and
white.

Walking into “The House’ was a sight to behold, alot of work needed to be done to get it in shape. In some ways the house was a testament to the state of Trinidad today. On the one hand, the past stared me in the face in the guise of the old abstract patterned curtains, dusty with wear.
Many made promises, empty from the start. No one really wants to touch this topic. They will talk, and tell you how brave, how talented, how important. But they stay away from this issue.

Nonetheless,this is a tribute to all of those who stay, the photographers in our society who take the thankless, sad pictures of our fellow men felled in service, the crying victims, the arrogant perpetrators…

The POWER OF THREAD is the point of my works.