Belief systems tend to work best when they are isolated, uncontested by any other canon; this could be why religious scholar and philosopher, Joseph Campbell, describes ‘The End’ as a kind of collision of once disparate ideologies. The National Exhibition 6 “Kingdom Come” provides 50 visual thinkers with a practical platform on which to collide with their vision of our present confusion or with hopeful projections of new beginnings. The NE6 aims to explore the challenges of ‘transition’ in modern times, in which we are brought abruptly closer together thanks to the spoils of electronic and social media platforms that connect every aspect of our existences.
The modern Bahamas certainly does not fall outside the realm of concerns that this global conversation brings. The narratives of endings and beginnings, life and death, positive and negative, are by no means new but, somehow in their most basic forms, are still central to the core understanding of ourselves and the greater story that we fit into. Here, 50 sophisticated minds tell their stories, afforded the perfect opportunity to delve into a subject as complex and relevant as the apocalypse, understood as the destruction of life as we know it, a wiping clean of the slate, and the possibilities that may bring.
- About the National Exhibition
The National Exhibition provides a platform for the creative community—both locally and in the diaspora—to channel their collective experiences in unpacking and rebuilding what Bahamian creativity is and can be. What emerges is a biennial exhibition that chronicles the island nation's social, political, and cultural shifts in that time, while making space for the community to grow and welcome emerging and established artists alike into its ranks.
The responses to the invited artists fell into essentially five categories:
Identity
Knowing who we are makes us confident about who will become. The late Jackson Burnside often made reference to the West African symbol of the Sankofa bird, flying forward with its head looking back, illustrating knowledge of the past. Do we, as Bahamians, understand truly who we are today? Are we prepared to make peace with our past? Through large-format portrait photographs, Sabrina Lightbourne explores Bahamian diversity in her submission Who is Bahamian, a street work that brings into question our diversity and our own national acceptance.
Transformation
Time creates a field of movement, as well as being a measure against which fixed ideas and philosophies can be assessed. In her floor-to-ceiling feather installation, Dede Brown explores the recurrence of ‘dramatic realignments’ and ‘rebirths’ and questions the expectation of a ‘perfect equilibrium.’ Sue Katz takes on a similar idea in her mixed media sculpture, depicting a modern angel, interpreted through a personal evolution of events in her life that endow her with her perspectives today.
Justice
Apryl Burrows talks directly to the rights of women in Bahamian society. Her works dramatically presents overcoming the oppression of gender restrictions upheld by past laws. The heart of freedom can be found in the ferocity of the individual; but this freedom is also fostered by the societal and legislative constructions through which it functions.
Survival
John Beadle critiques the idea of territory, security, and ownership in his work Solider Crab. This work analyzes affects of involuntary and voluntary migration, our sense of physical and mental space. The inevitability of change need not be disorienting; the suggestion is that you carry your shelter with you and, with that, you carry your history.
Swiss psychologist Carl Jung refers to the conversion of St. Paul as the great nervous breakdown: a necessary transformative event that manifests in the lives of those individuals who are brave enough to forge their own paths. Perhaps, if society is heroic enough to follow, these paths could lead to a collective infrastructure that might lead to new kingdom that is yet to come.
Participating artists
John Beadle
Joann Behagg
Jonathan Bethel
Lillian Blades
Dede Brown
Lawrence D. Burns
Apryl Burrows
Maria Chisnall
Jessica Colebrooke
Christina Darville
Claudette Dean
Donna DeCosta
Veronica Dorsett
Michael Edwards
Sonia Farmer
Tyrone Ferguson
Del Foxton
Kendra Frorup
Yutavia George
Maria Govan
Kendal Hanna
Andret John
Sue Katz
Thierry Lamare
Scharad Lightbourne
Sabrina Lightbourne
Toby Lunn
Susan Moir MacKay
Candis Marshall
Jace McKinney
Patricia Glinton Meicholas
Jeffrey Meris
Kishan Munroe
Lavar Munroe
Keisha Oliver
Holly Parotti
Lynn Parotti
Jackson Petit
Malcolm Rae
Dylan Rapillard
John Paul Saddleton
Heino Schmid
Steven Schmid
Dave Smith
Max Taylor
Allan Wallace
Eleanor Whitely
Italia Williams
Exhibition Photos
Special catalogue
