Art imitating Life or is it Life imitating Art?

The research for this body of work commenced in 2005 when I began collecting photographs from local newspapers and screen capturing images from documentaries on crime in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela and the United States. These images had been very specific to children within environments where they encounter Police and the Armed Forces. I became interested in the juxtapositioning of innocence against symbols of power. I wondered about the dynamic. Particularly in light of the troubling mass school shootings in the United States and the many shared videos here in Trinidad and Tobago of children fighting each other and adults in school. I named these large canvases Po Po - the word po po refers to the creole name meaning young child or baby and the sound that children and adults make when mimicking the sound of a gun firing.

Recent Trinidad and Tobago newspaper headlines discussing armed Police Officers in the nations schools ( September 2025)

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Adele Todd - See the Dead Man - 2016 - 2019 -17” x 23 1/4” from the series Po Post

Reference: Photojournalist Michael Bruce - Trinidad Express newspaper

This first image looks at a mother who has taken her child with her to identify a dead man. This heart wrenching scene brings up the issue of lack of child care, lack of empathy for mother and child and the role of authority.

When I chose to look at the tenuous nature between the world of public safety and security I received a push back. Many people looking at the embroideries seemed to want a clear answer to the role of the Police or Army who cast an eye or stand at the ready. They wanted me to explain what I was really saying? I found this attitude curious because the ‘answer’ is not black and white in the least and it is one where we all must ask what is being said.

Adele Todd - Little Girl Not Lost - 2016 - 27” x 26” from the series Po Po

Note: Little Girl Not Lost discusses the delicate situation all children face in the midst of an average day. We take for granted that children are ‘safe’ when any Armed Force is present. But is this really so?

Reference: Photojournalist Anthony Harris - Trinidad Guardian newspaper

Adele Todd - It is a Landmine of Safety - 2016 - from the series Po Po

Reference: Photojournalist Nicole Drayton - Trinidad Guardian newspaper

Adele Todd - Walking the Threshold 2016 - 29 3/4’’ x 26 1/2’’ - from the series Po Po

Reference: Photojournalist Robert Taylor - Trinidad Guardian newspaper

Note: Two boys on the way to school encounter Police Officers at their break. The men barely acknowledge the boys on what is ‘ to them’ a normal day on the job. The boys manouvre their way through this element of perceive safety. Are they really ‘ safe?’

Adele Todd - The Toy Tricycle - 2016 - 17” x 25 1/2’’- from the series Po Po

Reference: VICE TV video still

Note: As happens with work of the nature that I pursue, I see answers to questions everywhere. An American show on drugs and guns provided the image for this concept. Have ‘we’ ever considered that moment where Officers and Children collide? The Officer and the tricycle are both blue - this suggests the innocence of both parties - the Officer who walks into a situation that he knows little of the psychological and societal underpinnings and the Child who is part of that experience that is not of their doing.

Adele Todd - Fragile Officer - 2016 - 31” x 21’’ - from the series Po Po

Reference: VICE TV video still

Note: The Police Officer’s job is one of uncertainty. As this Officer walks through the play of the two boys with toy water guns I am struck by the vulnerability he faces. The original image is of a Policeman in Jamaica. I chose to position my Officer in a different environment with a different scenario. I chose the boys from stock photography and elaborated on what I saw. I chose to have the Officer walk through their play to show HIS vulnerability that he faces daily. BUBBLES CAN EASILY BE BULLETS.