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About
the.creole.factory
the.creole.factory is many things, but ultimately it is an idea. It stems from the desire to see a transformation in the way culture is created, represented, disseminated, taught and understood within the context of the Caribbean region. A simplified understanding of culture is encapsulated in the statement
“A culture is a total way of life…” -Walter Rodney.
If we take this statement as bearing truth, it can be rationalised that if a person can hold influence over their life in choosing say the food they eat, the clothes they wear, how they walk, and speak, and pray, and think, then the individual even in their own small way can have influence over a societies culture. It is with this belief that the idea of the creole factory was born.
In a world where the enfranchisement of a peoples seems to be the opposite of what is striven for by the social institutions that we allow to govern our behaviours, one of the last remaining vestiges of individual social autonomy can be found in the ability to create. The role of the artist, the musician, the storyteller, the dancer, the theatrical performer, the writer, are all roles that when harnessed by the individual offer modes of being that have the ability to transform society’s very foundation not through external force or through extraction and exploitation, but through the internal act of creation and the sharing of the created.
About the Artist
Jonathan Creese is a Trinidadian visual artist, currently living working and studying in Calgary, AB Canada. His practice focuses on the intersection between the technical craft object and the impact it can have on the individual or communal. His works can be classified as functioning within the realms of printmaking, textile design, papercrafts and installation, with the philosophies and practices of relational aesthetics, the arts and craft movement, post-colonial discourses and performance art being utilised and referenced in the creation and dissemination of work. As of the 10th July 2024 he is considering the philosophy of the individual that chooses to pursue arts as a way of living and the means of representing in illustration a society being destroyed by the fire of its own hubris.
Solo and Joint Exhibitions
2022
Building Patterns, Installation, Prairie Crocus Gallery at Stride Gallery, Calgary AB
The Void over the Land I, Installation, Marion Nicoll Gallery LRT space, Calgary, AB
2020
False Narratives, Joint Exhibition with Christine Norton, Art Society of Trinidad and Tobago, TTO
Curatorial Work
2024
Fibre and Jewellery Department Show, Curator, Alberta University of the Arts, Calgary, AB
Elevating the Paper Object, Curator, Marion Nicoll Gallery LRT space, Calgary, AB
Group Exhibitions
2024
The Winter Lodge, Group Exhibition, Alberta University of the Arts, Calgary AB
2023
12th Annual President’s Student Art, Craft and Design Exhibition, Group Exhibition, Alberta University of the Arts, Calgary, AB
Emerging Artists Unleashed, Group Exhibition, Art Society of Alberta, Calgary, AB
2022
Peoples Poetry Festival, installation alongside poet Brett Crowle, Loft 112, Calgary AB
Lasting Impressions, Group Exhibition, Alberta Printmakers, Calgary, AB
11th Annual President’s Student Art, Craft and Design Exhibition, Group Exhibition, Alberta University of the Arts, Calgary, AB
2021
Easter Traditions and Religious Art, Group Exhibition, Art Society of Trinidad and Tobago, TTO
2020
New Faces 2020, Group Exhibition, Horizons Art Gallery, TTO
Carnival on Canvas, Group Exhibition, Loftt Gallery TTO
2019
ME: a reflection of who WE are, Group exhibition, CARIFESTA XIV, Art Society of Trinidad and Tobago, TTO
Bridging the Gap, Group exhibition, CARIFESTA XIV, The National Academy for the Performing Arts, TTO
Lived In, Group exhibition, CARIFESTA XIV, The National Academy for the Performing Arts, TTO
2018
Faces and Figures, Group Exhibition, The GD Gallery, TTO
Moments in Time, Group exhibition, I’M Wellness Centre, TTO