This episode of Blank Canvas, Amanda Coulson, NAGB Executive Director, speaks with Kim Smith and Andrew Ash from The Place For Art on Village Road.
Blank Canvas: August 14th 2019, Kim Smith and Andrew Ash
All posts by Natalie Willis
The Visual Life Of Social Affliction: Structures of Violence in the Caribbean
Structural violence is rife and regionwide. At least we are here, even if we may be. In Bahamian artist Blue Curry’s “The New Riviera”(2014), we are not even here. This erasure of us from the scene is yet another form of unperceived structural violence, as we can also see in Curry’s “Nassau From Above” (2004).
From the Collection: “Poor Man’s Orchid” (1989) by Sue Bennett-Williams
By Natalie Willis. a portal into the practice of a dedicated educator. The 19th Century marked a period in Britain known as Orchidelirium. Not entirely unlike the Dutch tulip fever, this flower-frenzy was a mad scramble for the exotic, elusive orchid. They became connotative as a symbol of wealth, prestige and knowledge, of the affluence required to secure these items from far-off lands. Sue Bennett Williams’ “Poor Man’s Orchid” (1989) is no such thing and no less beautiful.
Finding Our Voices: Resisting Violence and Oppression
By Dr Ian Bethell Bennett, The University of The Bahamas. “I could be bounded in a nutshell, and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.” – Hamlet, II.ii. Is it a bad dream, a nightmare provoking somnambulance? We all think the best of green gentrification because we have been taught, in spite of the climate sceptics, we need to do something to improve our resilience. We are also told by the media that while people know about climate change and the havoc it plays in their neighbourhoods, jobs are more important because many of us are one paycheque away from poverty.
From the Collection: Jolyon Smith’s “Transformation” (1987) and imagining Black Bahamian futures
By Natalie Willis. Jolyon Smith’s Transformation (1987) is one of the first works collected for the National Collection at the NAGB, shown in the Inaugural National Exhibition or the INE. To have a work that appears so afrofuturist in its aesthetic speaks volumes for the genre and also for the nascent years of the NAGB in thinking what a National Collection could and should look like. What does a Black future look like, and a Bahamian one at that?
Designing for Space: Working with Possible Futures in Mind
By Dr Ian Bethell Bennett,The University of The Bahamas. Colonialism and coloniality in design occur when little is left of the past to remind us of the physical reality. On a recent trip to Cape Town, I had the pleasure of enjoying two spectacular spaces of art and design that showed how important it is to think through purpose and landscape and how the beauty of both can be made functional in the spaces created. I had the pleasure of stumbling into a nursery that doubled as an apparent antiquarian. The space was large and well-designed with room to breathe. Form and purpose combined with the art of design to speak to concepts of natural beauty, much like the wave design at the London Aquatic Centre at Stratford designed by Zaha Hadid especially for the 2012 Olympic games and constructed by Balfour Beaty; the perfect example of form, design and purpose merging and blurring lines of functionality and beauty.
From the Collection: “Untitled (Rake Bird)” by Tyrone Ferguson
By Natalie Willis. Metal is a tricky medium. It’s industrial, ceremonial, it can be strong enough to build bridges or soft enough that your very teeth could dent it. For Tyrone Ferguson, he doesn’t seem to find these traits something to work against, rather he works with his medium intuitively, sensitively, and brings some spirit back into metalwork and blacksmithing.
From the Collection: Chelsea Pottery “A Brief Bahamian History of Clay”
By Natalie Willis. A beautifully formed piece of handmade ceramic work, produced at the Chelsea Pottery in Nassau in 1960, serves as a great point of departure for talking about some of our Bahamian art histories. Clay work, like drawing and painting, has a history almost as old as humanity itself. Our legacy of pottery here begins with the indigenous peoples of The Bahamas – the Arawaks, Lucayans, and Tainos. As Dr Erica M. James lays out in her key text on Bahamian art history in “Bahamian Modernism”, our background of creative visual culture is much richer and varied than we tend to hear about.
Timelines: Developing Blackness
Historical photographs show Bahamians claiming and embracing their African heritage. Aptly named, these photographs show us a period in our history where Bahamians were pointedly claiming and embracing their Blackness. This sense of pride was born out of, but not limited to America’s expressions of Black power during the Civil Rights Movement, the road to Majority Rule in 1967, and The Bahamas’ independence in 1973.
CACIQUE ARTIST IN THE SPOTLIGHT | TESSA WHITEHEAD 2.0
Tessa Whitehead’s NAGB Exhibition shared in Cacique International’s Artists In the Spotlight series: “With a distinctive taste for landscapes, particularly those of the islands, Tessa’s latest work powerfully captures her empirical conception of the complexities of Caribbean life. Tessa’s distinguished collection tellingly titled, “…there are always two deaths”, a line borrowed from ‘Wide Sargasso Sea’, is an expressive portrayal of loss and lamenting. Tessa’s work touches on many bold themes including matriarchal identification, alienation and marriage. Her artistic exploration of an intrinsic relationship existing between women and nature is felt deeply. The lush, tropical island backdrop seems like an idyllic landscape for healing; however, with hints of agonizing irony, these tropical inlets are entrenched in a turbulent history which proves a difficult place to search for the warmth of understanding.”