Jonathan Creese
Fibre
www.thecreolefactory.org/I am a visual artist, making work in reference to Trinidadian society with an interest in cultural interrogation, documentation, visual exploration of analytical research, and material and systems innovation. My work challenges the internal and external perceptions of the island space and its individuals through the languages of textile surface design, printmaking, sculpture, and installation. Through these I acctualise conceptual ideas which draw from the colonial history of the geopolitical space in an attempt to contextualise current realities which define life on the island. I have an interest in art acting as a means of progressing knowledge and thought in viewers as well as acting as a forerunner for vernacular innovation and legitimising cultural soverignity in an ever-globalising world. Simultaneously with my work, I document, legitimise, and visually expound the culture of the island, whilst offering to said culture an alternative understanding of itself that can be adopted as its biproduct.
age and sex
age and sex is a work that uses the language of the multiple to materially represent statistical data of homicide occurrences in Trinidad and Tobago for 2025. The work acts as a form of documentation of the bodily information to be gleaned from news reports on homicides, focusing on the age and sex of victims to inform design choices. Every month of the year is a unique edition, with data being represented differently: correlated to elements of design, such as length of object, colour, form etc. The variability from month-to-month functions to present differing means of portraying data, using vernacular processes and materials related to the historical as well as contemporary realities of Trinbagonian society. The materiality of the work al
2025
Object based data representation of the age and sex of homicide victims in Trinidad and Tobago for January 2025.
Object based data representation of the age and sex of homicide victims in Trinidad and Tobago for February 2025.
may: according to babylon
This work is a visual representation of homicide statistics from the month of May 2024 in Trinidad and Tobago, with each strip representative of one data point/one murdered body.
Variable size (53 strips at 16” x 1.75”)
2024
Prairie Aesthetic
A collection of prints that use the aesthetics of the prairies to inform design decisions.
Silkscreen – Acrylic on paper
2024
Exploration in colour transparency and layering.
Natural dye repeat pattern on cotton
2024
Exploration in movement and visual push and pull.
Relating Homicide
This work is a relational document showing the accumulation of homicides during the year 2024 in Trinidad and Tobago. The edition of prints uses the abstracted silhouette of the Corbeau (black vulture) as a representation of one body/one data point. 12 blocks were created for the months of January through December 2024 and printed in succession with impressions accumulating for each print, representative of the particular month plus the previous months data. Homicide as a societal ill in the context of Trinbago is a product of the accumulation of multiple factors (government and public service corruption, inefficient policing, economic inequality, cultural immorality, etc.) The prevalence of homicides is presented here as documentation no
21” x 9.5” prints
2024
21” x 9.5” prints
2024
21” x 9.5” prints
2024
21” x 9.5” prints
2024
21” x 9.5” prints
2024
21” x 9.5” prints
2024
tool of a 21st century West Indian
Well to show you I in for trouble
On meh right hand is meh steel knuckle
Meh chukka in meh left pocket
Boys meh pohyah under meh jacket
And a jumpin up like if ah wild
Ah know they boun to say "That is ole style"
But they could beat meh like a chile
Ah takin licks with a smile
And ah peltin bois like ah wild
-Small Island Pride
