On my way to work, I noticed that a familiar town had been demolished. Boards and other forms of structure that once housed a community lay broken on the ground.
On my way to work, I noticed that a familiar town had been demolished. Boards and other forms of structure that once housed a community lay broken on the ground.
The triptych by Susan Moir Mackay, Anthropology 2012: Human, System, Object breaks the reality of human life into these three specific categories. It examines the relationship between people, their social networks and the apparatus of everyday routines. Mackay’s work offers a means of location and charting the diversity of society through a kind of modern excavation that reveals the symbols of collection preoccupations that ultimately obstructs us from a much meaningful existence.
Jace McKinney’s work visually echoes the Biblical narrative of the Hebrews being delivered by God from the hands of the Egyptians where they sang a song of praise that became known as “The Song of Moses”. Mckinney’s choir is constructed from plaster molds made from the heads of young children from a grass-roots community and subsequently turned into 21 makeshift lamps. McKinney’s work acts as a metaphor for the innate divinity of the culture of youth and a call for us to elevate ourselves from our collective cynicism.
This gallery delves into the sub-theme of balance, which in matter of Kingdom Come itself is tied to spirituality; be it societal, individual or the lack thereof. Finding Balance, Tyrone Ferguson’s aluminum sculpture distinctly focuses on this theme. The balancing of a white disc and a black disc shows the constant point of equilibrium that we all try to find in our lives on a daily basis, and seeing that the figure is on a tight rope this stability is reiterated with other things that may be occurring in the world/society, that we walk the tight rope in hopes to survive.
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.
To celebrate Amos Ferguson: Bahamian Outsider, we are sharing some great gallery shots of the exhibition, as well as The Bahamian Landscape below!
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.
Inside the Administrative Building of the NAGB are some not so hidden gems. Standing at an imposing and statuesque height in middle of the building are a series of four murals by prominent Bahamian artists. Each artist was given license to let the large canvases speak to them and do as they please. As a result, the NAGB hosts four very different murals, reflecting each artists particular style and concept. Below are short videos based on these murals, click on the links to see the artists at work!