Using Embroidery to discuss HARD TOPICS

My first solo show dealt with domestic violence in Trinidad and Tobago. In 1999 there seemed to be an epidemic of stories that caught the front pages almost on a daily basis. Women were being systematically murdered by their boyfriends and husbands. I felt helpless reading and hearing of these incidents. I wanted to do something about it and began to ask myself the question about the kind of Art I wanted to show in Trinidad and Tobago. The gallery system was producing bucolic canvases and when not, abstract work and photorealism of landscapes. I saw no evidence of what was blaring from the pages of the newspaper. I started by researching the topic of domestic violence to try to understand how it gradually caused death. As I was doing the reading, the government of Trinidad and Tobago was debating the Domestic Violence Act in Parliament and I decided that I would begin with understanding what the act proclaimed.

HIT! A Visual Documentation on Domestic Violence - this trilogy of handkerchief linen embroideries are carefully folded and feature women in Trinidad and Tobago being abused by their husbands. One is Hindu, one African and one, Muslim. The reference behind this work comes from a Calypso called Bull Pistle by Devon Ruthven George. It is all about the fact that women get abused regardless of who they are or what they may look like.

I did silhouettes of children with this piece titled Licks like Fire.

This work was interactive. My partner Richard Bolai holds a machete like the one the man uses to run down the woman he loves.

I did a series of Mouths - showing the way that people weaponize their voices in domestic disputes.