The English In Us - Public Swings

What brings childhood pleasures


The witch’s hat

You have entered the world of the wooden carousal, the rocking horse, the swinging boat, the witch’s hat and other unsafe swings at the Public playground in Woodbrook,Trinidad


A popular spot for prostitutes at night

The Chinese Connection- Fireworks

At twelve, Trinidad and Tobago


The view from outside, 2006

Isle of the Humming Bird

Land of the Humming bird, Trinidad West Indies

Along Victoria Avenue, Port of Spain, Trinidad, West Indies, a wall drawing emphasizes the significance of the fast pace state of the island. An graffiti artist has drawn Trinidad and Tobago in retrospection, and of its pursuit for progress.

This is a Trinidad and Tobago with its new breed of inhabitants briskly walking forward to a new vocation and also neglecting whats around him on the way to his success. The wall drawing is preliminary in pencil and traced over with a crayon to give it a permanence. The artist has composed it perfectly within inner frame of a concrete wall and the work is of an aristocrat as he looks upon the future with a glazed contemplation. It is a proud portrait showing hardship, doubt and stillness.


A stenographer tells his tale: “What really going on" and uses the lip of the concrete frame to give the illusion of peeping through a window frame

No entry tickets are required to view this work of art, just set your foot to the streets off New-Town and to vacant wall façade before the developers of progress move in and whitewash a poignant artwork away. - See the work as a thebookmann header


A female companion joins the wall

Mervin, Jal and Say no to drugs

Mervin and Jah, the gate to a jail cell, Trinidad, 2005

This abandon Police Station located in the district of Brasso, Trinidad, had two jail cells which were practically clean of graffiti with the exception of a scrawling saying, Say no to drugs

My Trini Bed-Site Specific Public Art 4

Where I lay I shall be remembered

The British artist, Tracey Emin puts a spin on her personal life by combining both art and reality in a piece entitled, My Bed. A mattress littered with her personal artifices such as paper waste, undergarments, condoms, liquor bottles and cigarettes. In 1999, It was short-listed for the Turner Prize.

In 2005, on the streets of Port of Spain, Trinidad, this public installation, like Tracey Emin’s work is of personal effects. What you see is not a performer or a mannequin but rather a homeless man in complete solitude. All his possessions are littered besides him. Food containers, clothing, bedding and newspapers. And where he sleeps is in a decrepit bus shelter. This is his, My Trini Bed, available to any gallery willing to accept it. The Last Thing I Said is Don't Leave Me Here.

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One woman to the other; I had to move over on de road, he taking up d pavement with he queen size
Queen size - The size of the cardboard used as a bed mat

Mighty Sparrow Versus Lord Kitchener

He looks as thought he is peeing.... from one of the many visitors to Trinidad and Tobago. Lord Kitchener with his trademark jacket, fedor and dance jig, St. James, Trinidad


A Grand Master by Pat Chu Foon


The Mighty Sparrow with the head of Rose

There was a controversy over the bronze statue of the Mighty Sparrow. At the unveiling, the face of Sparrow looked more like calypso Rose

Hoytee-toytee-Horticultural Society-Veneer

Flowers of Trinidad and Tobago-impossible to clone

At the Horticultural Society, Trinidad and Tobago there are freshly cut local flowers with names such as Ginger, Sexy Pink or Decorative Banana. Customers come in and gingerly walk about, stooping, finessing and inspecting each bunch as they decide which are the best to pick.


The Horticultural Society, Port of Spain


Plastic flower picking on Charlotte Street, in Port of Spain, 2005

Flowers and Fruits - Cito Valesquez

Flowers and Fruits This is the work of Cito Valesquez his sculptures were set along streets of Port of Spain during the celebration of its independence in 1962

A Fancy sailor band clashing with a Steelband in Port of Spain, Trinidad, 1959.

Each masquerader carried a candy striped cane, twirling the hook on the pavement as he danced along the street. The elaborate papier mashé headpieces showcased every variety of Flower taken from the Botanical Gardens. The Fruits were crafted to make them look as edible as they could.

The wire bender had done his job and all Fruits and Flowers kept its shape perfectly as a sea of bouquets in equilibrium with the convoy of fancy sailor costumes. Starch white shirts with broad collars and lapels marking each military rank and wearing flared bell bottoms with gold tassels to crown each hem. Each man carried his canteen filled an intoxicating concoction and Baby power was held securely as ammunition to target revellers with a mist baby’ fragrant.

A mas man between the fruits and flowers

By midday, the binging of Rum had gradually gone to everyone's head and the momentum could not be stopped. People played their Mas by swaying and tilting back and forth in a choreographed dance that worked effortlessness with their hands to give the sense of boat rocking back and fro. The music had hypnotized them like free slaves mocking the French and the march into Port of Spain was even sweeter. But did they know were they heading?

At East Dry River, large oil drums pulsed from not too far and in the distance, they looked like shivering shimmering canopies in row one after another. Underneath each tent, panmen contorted their body to strike each note correctly and their arms vaulted in unison as the pan sticks careened off the steel drums. Booming and booming. The ensemble had come with its myriad of supporters as they pushed the carts carrying the drums and players oblivious to the festive colourful Fruits and Flowers who were basking in the sun, yet this steelband were prepared for any altercation if and girlish band dared to cross their path.

Hibiscus headpieces

The fancy sailors had drifted off their path from Oxford Street and entered a No Fruits and Flowers Zone of Piccadilly Street. The turf belonged to the Bad Boys of John John and unwillingly, Fruits, Flowers and Floats merged with Carib Tokyo Steel Band Orchestra but not too smoothly. The alcohol had trance them both and sent a wave of silence into the thick humid air.

Pushing pan across the Queen's Park Savannah stage

Was it a simple miscalculated puff of baby powder or the poke by an elegant Hibiscus petal? After all, these were men and this was warfare. Johnson’s Baby Power against an arsenal of bottles, sticks and vernacular not fit of the Queen.

A policemen on the beat

These maquettes represent Cito Valesquez's carnival band, Flowers and Fruit. The work is by Lighton James and it is his whimsical take on Trinidad carnival in spirit and of the nuances which is till part of the festival. The displayed was shown at a sport's club in Barataria from 2002, Images of Lighton James' work are courtesy of Kathyan Chan