Trinidad Aesthetic and creating Sexypink on Wordpress

PROJECT: Trinidad Aesthetic: a soft cover book of essays and photographs

theme: Asking the question WHAT is the Trinidad aesthetic?

funding: my own

duration of project: ongoing

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I got a freelance project to do at CAREC-The Caribbean Epidemiology Centre in Ellerslie Park. I had done one or two other projects with them and had become quite fond of their small library where they had the presence of mind to purchase copies of Communications Arts magazines. I was sitting on one of the few large round wooden tables on a comfortably upholstered green chair when one of the Doctors approached me and asked to sit. His name was Robert Lee. We ended up in a rousing conversation that would stay with me for the rest of my life because of the pre-occupation I would have with it to this day.

One if the things he talked about was his looking for a local gift for a friend in London. He found himself as a hardware store where furry toilet seats were being advertised. He bought a bright pink one. We then went on to talk about all of the things that make us, us.

It brought about an aha moment for me. It came to me fully formed. What is the Trinidad Aesthetic?

After meeting Dr Lee I continued the conversation with my Graphic Design Partner and best friend Richard Bolai (TheBookmann) and I began to take trips all over the island in search of images of all sorts that felt and looked uniquely local. I suggested that we begin a site online to store our efforts while we looked for funding to publish the book.

We wondered into rum shops. We photographed markets, street signage, the way people dressed…even how they spoke, we captured in a loosely anthropological way.

People were very friendly. They were happy to give us access and to discuss what they considered ‘locally’ specific.

We soon discovered that in considering what we believed we understood The Trinidad Aesthetic to be, we also had the responsibility to be clear about what the term aesthetic embodied. But not only that, would we focus more on Art, signage and other ephemera that appeared naive and outsider in nature? Or were we going to take a holistic look at all aspects of Trinidad culture?

To create a photographic narrative it would also mean our local products, packaging, branding and our festivals - we had to consider everything and simply shoot photos and analyze them afterwards.

The following are some of the images taken by The Bookmann during our many trips all over Trinidad looking for images that best represented The Trinidad Aesthetic.

Crix Biscuits established in Trinidad and Tobago in 1923 by the Bermudez family originally from Venezuela.

Airbrush imitation imagery - a style first seen in African American and Hispanic American inner cities. Denyse Belfon our Saucy Wow as she is known in the Soca fraternity.

White Oak - one of many products of one of our oldest companies, Angostura Limited - established in 1824. Decades of creating its own image now brings them to creating ethereal fantasy.

Our earliest exported products are sugar based because of our colonial past. Solo drinks have a particular place in the hearts of Trinbagonians.

The Chinese Laundry is slowly disappearing from the landscape. It’s architectural simplicity a reminder to a different time.

We have exported this form of dance to the world through our Carnivals. We call it wineing. America has renamed it twerking.

The Snowcone Vendor is a small business person usually making the cart, hand painting it, adding a large bell and placing the whole structure for easy mobility onto a bicycle. What makes it ‘local’ is usually the names given to the cart and the types of syrups that are put into the styrofoam cup of shaved ice - guava, tamarind and the especially exotic, delicious mami cepode.

We support our ‘local’ heroes as any other country does by making them larger than life. Dwight Yorke is lionized on the side of the communications building in Port-of-Spain. We use our national flag liberally.

More White Oak mini banner advertising at Carnival time where the national instrument of Trinidad and Tobago, the Steelpan is added to sell the message of rum drinking.

One of the most popular and oldest drink spots in Woodbrook, Brooklyn Bar takes advantage of not only local advertising but also Artists painting related to fêting and liming.

The Chinese presence in Trinidad and Tobago is acknowledged in this lottery game that is called Play Whe. It is the most popular game of chance in the country.

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