festival image

Every year the trinidad + tobago film festival invites an artist to create an original work of art.

The 2009 Festival artist is Eddie Bowen. The Cobo, or Corbeau, is the subject of this year’s exquisite Festival art. The Cobo is a highly intelligent, nervous, enigmatic, illusive, urban and coastal creature. He is gritty, real and represents a view of Caribbean (or Trinidadian) culture from the inside looking out rather than the outside looking in. He is a whole cast of characters, the priest, the trickster, the garbage man, the midnight robber. The Cobo is the shadow, he exists in the wake of our consumption, picking, cleaning and transforming our landscape.

From a film perspective, the artist's choice to use graphite and pen in the original artwork brings the image into a context of black and white cinematic, textured imagery. It reminds us of old movies and the basic principles of film: the presence and absence of light. Many filmmakers have been inspired by painters, the mood of a composition, how it is framed, the use of contrasts. The Festival image 2009 draws directly on an unexpected thematic move away from an “exotic” Caribbean to one of self-assertion, fitting appropriately with the objective of the trinidad + tobago film festival to put ourselves in front of the camera lens, and fitting with the Festival slogan: You're in Focus.



Title: Cobo
Size: 20"x27"
Description: Silk Screen by Axelle Fine Arts New York
Price: $2,500tt
Contact: mandilee@trinidadandtobagofilmfestival.com

merchandise

This year the trinidad+tobago film festival has created a new brand identity in collaboration with our official design firm, Abovegroup. Our new look and feel directly reflects the ethos of the Festival, to tell Caribbean stories. Our new tagline “You’re in focus” further emphasizes that the festival belongs to the region—by subject, author, and audience.

Abovegroup has designed the Festival poster, based on the original painting Cobo by Eddie Bowen.

Internationally known fashion designer Claudia Pegus is also collaborating with the Festival this year to design the Festival T-shirts and bags.

click her to see merchandise…

2008 festival image

2008 print
Peter Doig’s Lapeyrouse Wall, inspired by a man with an umbrella, his shadow recalling the human shadow when caught in the cinema projector’s light, was the first Festival image in 2008. This iconic image along with Cobo will form part of a unique collection of Festival Art at the National Museum and Art Gallery, the annual sponsor of the trinidad + tobago film festival artist.