The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas (NAGB) is freshening things up with a new permanent exhibition called The Bahamian Domestic. Saying goodbye to 40 Years of Bahamian Art, the former permanent exhibition which paid homage to the country's four decades of independence, the NAGB team now looks forward to the new collection of works that gives voice to a plethora of experiences of living in The Bahamas.
The exhibition's theme was chosen by NAGB Director Amanda Coulson, who wanted the chance to showcase the everyday moments of Bahamian living, according to NAGB Assistant Curator and Registrar Averia Wright. Wright is co-curating the show alongside NAGB Collections Management Registrar and Curator Ashley Knowles.
Despite what the name suggests, the NAGB's permanent exhibitions generally last from six months to one year before being changed.
40 Years of Bahamian Art had been on display at the gallery since July 2013.
"With a year-long show, you can tell when attention starts to wane from the public, so it was time. And also we were ready for something new," said Wright.
The former show featured work from the 70s - the decade the country became independent - to the modern day. Many of the works were influenced by international styles of art - like Cubism and Impressionism. The Bahamian Domestic, in contrast, will "show how Bahamians grasp their own visual style".
Honest is probably the best way to describe the exhibition - visitors will find no perpetuated misconceptions about living in paradise in the art works. According to Knowles, the show gives a voice to Bahamians and the ways they "manifest or explore the issues in their own society".
Taking a multifaceted approach, the curating duo have touched on a number of areas of Bahamian life including immigration, religion, poverty, labor, music and architecture. The project will showcase "the beauty and the bad", Knowles added.
"It's a very involved exhibition, but it all comes back to the fact that it's Bahamian domestic [life] - it's where we live, where we work, how we get along with each other and it also has the spirit of the Bahamian people, so we didn't really heavily focus on Junkanoo, but you get some idea of festivities, goombay, and the everyday - it's supposed to be more of the everyday rather than those big moments, so that's basically what the whole exhibition is about," explained Wright.
Most of the works have been sourced from large collections like the Dawn Davies Collection and the D'Aguilar Art Foundation, with a few pieces coming from the National Collection of Bahamian Art. Visitors can look forward to seeing works by some of the visual art community's newer faces, including a ceramic set by 2013 Central Bank Art Competition winner Jeffrey Meris. The final selection is the product of a joint effort and synergy between the co-curators.
"We started to cross off or add or fix the story as in [define] what is The Bahamian Domestic," Wright said. "So it didn't happen that we agreed on everything; we always had to defend our pose on this piece or [that], so it was a joint effort, but we got the story together at the end."
Dividing the space between them, Wright and Knowles each took charge of her section, with Wright responsible for the front of the exhibition - a space that tells the story of the Bahamian home and family - and Knowles curating the back - an area that narrates cultural issues and social dynamics. The various sections of the exhibition will be accompanied by essays composed by the curators. Through their writings, Wright and Knowles hope to explain their motives behind the themes portrayed in The Bahamian Domestic's spaces.
PopopStudios Prize Winner Jodi Minnis has also played a role in bringing the new exhibition together by curating the show's "labor" section.
"My wall is about labor, and your work kind of dictates what social class you fall into, and your social class depicts how you respond to religion and living in The Bahamas and the other aspects of the show," she said. "So I think it's important to bring in that aspect to show that there is a tie between all aspects of Bahamian life."
The Bahamian Domestic will be open Tuesday, October 7, 2014. The NAGB is open to visitors Tuesday to Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and on Sundays from 12 noon to 4 p.m. To find out more about The Bahamian Domestic or the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas, visit http://www.nagb.org.bs/ or call (242) 328-5800/1.
Jump: The Bahamian Domestic is the product of a joint effort
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