NE9 was presented as a socially unique project, centering artists working to define their individual spaces and experiences.
National Exhibition 9 Catalogue
All posts tagged: NE9
Hope Is All Around Us
Bahamian and Caribbean artists from all genres are coming together to uplift The Bahamas through hurricane relief efforts post-Dorian.
By Kevanté A.C. Cash, NAGB Correspondent. It seems as though visual artist and muralist Angelika Wallace-Whitfield may have been foreshadowing with her Ninth National Exhibition (NE9) public art project: “Hope Is A Weapon.” During these trying times, the words that the artist penned to elaborate on the work finds us at a convenient moment and feels all too real. Much like the pressing issue placed on the backs of our nation’s leaders, Bahamians who have not been severely affected by the storm and the global world who is watching.
Blank Canvas with Saskia D’Aguilar and Alex Timchula
For the last week of "NE9: The Fruit & The Seed”the “Blank Canvas” welcomes the artists Saskia D’Aguilar and Alex
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Saucy Expressions presents ‘Riddim n Tingum’ for the National Exhibition 9
By Kevanté A.C. Cash, NAGB Correspondent . Artists Princess Pratt and Christine Wilson curate a night of poetic cultural expression to align with the theme of “The Fruit and The Seed” . Just when you thought the Ninth National Exhibition could not get any saucier—with artworks of daring themes brought forth to challenge the norms of a Bahamian society— poetic duo Saucy Expressions, represented by Princess Pratt and Christine Wilson, curates an evening of “Riddim n Tingum,” featuring rebellious words from Bahamian poets, musicians and writers, for a literary take on NE9’s “The Fruit and The Seed.” One of the two event organisers and performance poet, Princess Pratt, says her interest in wanting to organise an event like this stemmed from the fact that she had never seen a National Exhibition that featured performance poetry before. She wanted it to be an apparatus that bridged the gap between these seemingly separate worlds of artistry. So when the call came out, she and her creative business partner, Christine Wilson, conceived and presented a proposal to utilise the NAGB’s amphitheatre—Fiona’s Theatre—as a space for what would be called “Riddim n Tingum” for the NE9.
Considering culture: More than a smile
By Dr Ian Bethell-Bennett, The University of The Bahamas. The art of expression is as much a part of culture as is the art of weaving or straw work, yet we often overlook this. When someone says, “I ga beat you into next week,” the local colour is present, but the violent subtext is usually edited out. In Jamaican novelist, dramatist, critic, philosopher, and essayist Sylvia Wynter’s work “We must learn to sit down together and talk about a little culture” (Jamaica Journal, 1968) we see the commodification of art and culture. Yet, we have apparently progressed to the post-independence point where most pre-independence problems are ignored or cured by the shift. But the exploration of sitting down together demonstrates that we have not moved beyond the problems nor have they disappeared. Violence and violent dispossession remain realities, often ignored.
Blank Canvas with Dr Amatoritsero Ede, Shivanee Ramlochan and Sonia Farmer
On today’s Blank Canvas, guest host Dr. Craig Smith is joined by UB english professor and poet Dr. Amatoritsero Ede, acclaimed Trinidadian poet Shivanee Ramlochan and Bahamian artist and poet Sonia Farmer. They discuss the upcoming third annual Blue Flamingo Literary Festival (BFLF) in partnership with the NAGB, which will be held at The University of The Bahamas March 21-23, 2019.
The God Self: Lessons on Self-Love from Emerging Artist Cydne Coleby
By Kevanté A.C. Cash, NAGB Correspondent. At first glance, through a narrow lens, one could be offended by the works of emerging artist Cydne Coleby supported in the National Exhibition 9 (NE9) “The Fruit and The Seed”. Crafted with a “slight sense of narcissism”, interwoven with themes of erotic imagery, Coleby addresses the self – the God self, that is. She conducts a session of “soulversations” – moments in time allotted for self to do the work of loving and healing from past traumas and pains through her series “A God Called Self”.
Tender Seedlings: Anina and A.L. Major Reflect on Pain and Love in the Bahamian Diaspora
By Natalie Willis. Art and language, be it in literature, poetry, or song, have perhaps always gone hand in hand. It makes sense of course, because really what we’re getting down to in artwork or in words is communication – often with one being used to describe or illustrate the other. It’s a happy collaboration, and so too was the collaboration between interdisciplinary artist Anina Major and her flesh-and-blood family A.L. Major. The two came together to produce Seedling (2018) for the NE9 “The Fruit and The Seed,” a work incorporating cohesively all manner of material – ceramic, wood, digital clocks, a newly sprouted dilly tree, and the words of poetry and phone calls overland and oversea. The work – part artistic laboratory experiment and part poetic becoming – gives us a way to think on the struggles of identity of the Bahamian emigre.
Blank Canvas with Jalan Harris and Kendra Frorup
On this week’s Blank Canvas we welcome two more artists from the National Exhibition “NE9: The Fruit and The Seed,” Jalan Harris (centre) and Kendra Frorup (right).
Blank Canvas with Eric Rose, Danny Davis, and Jenna Chaplin
The NAGB’s Blank Canvas invites three guests into the studio—all of whom have artwork exhibited in this year’s National Exhibition, “NE9: The Fruit & the Seed”—to discuss different ideas about boundaries and public spaces and how those can be organised in such a way as to be detrimental to our continued positive growth as a society.