Feature Sounding the Alarm: Tanicia Pratt’s Blow the Whistle Letitia Pratt · 14 February 2025 Tanicia Pratt, an interdisciplinary poet,
Sounding the Alarm: Tanicia Pratt’s Blow the Whistle
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Feature From The Exhibition: The Ballroom
How do you rise above life’s dramatic changes and transitions with a smile on your face or a shred of hope? Some suggest that we don’t rise above them at all but instead move with these changes, these minor and major apocalypses. Joseph Campbell philosophizes that we have to dive into the fire to find our treasure. Many of the artists in this space have dived into an abyss of some kind. Whether it be the exposure of Bahamian societal issues in Kishan Munroe’s “Beacon of Hope”, physical and emotional turmoil in Kendra Frorup’s installations “Duran Duran” and “A Constant Internal Smile” or Dede Brown’s study of rebirth in her installation “Chaos is the law of nature; Order is the dream of man”, on the most basic level these works speak to our natural human instinct for persistent survival in the midst of change.
Feature from the Exhibition: The Dragon
The octagonal shape of “The Dragon” is striking for Amos Ferguson being that it is not its normal 36 x 30 sheet of cardboard that Ferguson is known for and is aptly applied to the depiction Ferguson chose to paint. The seven-headed dragon from the book of Revelations in the bible is a phenomenal story that most will not forget based on the writers extensive description.
Feature from the Exhibition: The Middle Passage
Appropriately entitled The Middle Passage, Jeffrey Meris’ large and imposing piece for Transforming Spaces: Fibre 2012 is a call to memory, history and healing. Located in the Project Space (PS) Room in the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas (NAGB), Meris was inspired by conceptual mixed media artists such as Bahamian native, Blue Curry, to create a piece that visitors can interact with. Indeed, the entire piece is physical, tactile and emotional experience. Upon entering the wide mouth of The Middle Passage, visitors enter a soundless, warm place. Cotton brushes their sides and indeed it surrounds them. They are compelled to further their journey, each step takes them into further, tighter and claustrophobic terrain till they are squeezed, packed and expelled through its much smaller exit point.
Feature from the National Collection: Emancipation Day Boat Cruise
The sight of colorful faces, the rock of the music, and the sway of the boat with a boisterous, energetic crowd are all felt in John Beadle’s Emancipation Day Boat Cruise. Viewing this piece is an experience in and of itself. The analogous colors of reds, oranges and yellows are aptly applied across the canvas. The painting also includes elements of drawing, collage and quilting.