When one encounters artist and master blacksmith Tyrone Ferguson, you know immediately that you are in the company of someone distinct and special. His work, the product and reflection of more than two decades of professional experience as a skilled tradesmen in welding, direct metal fabrication, and machine shop work, has, as his website articulates, been "harnessed... into the practice of a blacksmithing craft, which can only be gleaned through long years of apprenticeship". Developing his skills from that unique perspective -- as a creative operating within industry, has produced in and from him, a lens and approach that are completely unlike anyone else's. Tyrone and his work are truly one of a kind.
Ferguson's signature style is present and readily identifiable in his various projects, commissioned by institutions and individuals, not only in The Bahamas, but also in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Although his work speaks volumes, for years people didn't know how to qualify or categorize it. "We know a person, we know someone.", is what people would say, Tyrone recalls. However, since forging relationships with Dr. Erica James, master artist Antonius Roberts, and the NAGB, he has come into his own as a blacksmith, and today, to many in the country, is the blacksmith. According to Ferguson, "People don't really know what that blacksmith is, not in the contemporary sense... but tapping into the spirit of the blacksmith in Africa, the blacksmith who made the tools to do the ceremonial sculpture. The Blacksmith was an integral person in the community. The blacksmith was an intermediary."
As a vessel for his own
creations, Tyrone Ferguson's gates as well as his other works often read, like those ceremonial sculptures of the past, as somehow, transcendent. This comes as no surprise when you discover that Ferguson is also an ordained minister. His belief system is multi-denominational, drawing from both Eastern and Western traditions. In this inclusive approach to spirituality and growth, Ferguson finds the plurality in universal truths. There is no one right answer or path; only love. His work expresses this central element of his practice, both as man and as artist.
So when the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas decided it was time to present itself from its front entrance, facing West Hill Street, with the same spirit and distinction reflected within: the walls of the Villa Doyle where the museum is housed; the serenity of the adjacent garden; the powerful history and significance of both properties; and the Gallery's ambitious plans for the future, there was no other artist the Gallery could imagine would facilitate the project than Tyrone Ferguson.
The Gates Commission was approved by the NAGB Board of Directors, under the leadership of Mr. Stan Burnside, himself, a Bahamian master artist. Approached by the Board nearly two years ago, initially, Tyrone indicated that he would consider the project. It was in his "spirit", but he never gave it, as he calls it, "sitting down time". "It was just a conversation.", Ferguson recalls. However, that sentiment permanently shifted after a lunch meeting with NAGB Director, Amanda Coulson.
Nearly one and a half years since the dialogue that affirmed Ferguson's commitment to the project, the Gates were formally commissioned. The process to launch them was a true labor of love for the Gallery. The board allocated specific funds and NAGB leadership also raised additional monies to glean sufficient support to have the Gates constructed.
For Ferguson, once the process to design them began, the Gates required all of the energy and all of his experience to conceive them. They are a combination and exploration of spirit and technique and Tyrone wanted to bring all of who he is, both internally and externally, to the process. The metal, initially six foot long rods, is being hand stretched by Tyrone, himself. The physicality of that labor is matched only by the state of the art technology he will use to produce stunning details, that without it, would be virtually impossible to fabricate. The process that will bring the Gates into fruition is a technique he is specifically developing for this project. Ferguson has harnessed iron, copper, stainless steel, aluminum, and found objects, forging them into something completely new. The NAGB Gates, however, will be forged from bronze and will speak to the many stories and spaces that comprise the Gallery grounds.
A natural synergy operates between Mr. Ferguson's plans for the Gates and the NAGB's recent improvements and intentions for its adjacent property. Believed to have once been a satellite facility to Nassau's first African hospital, its development into a garden that will soon house sculptural works as well as an amphitheatre, represent the possibilities that come alive when community comes together to bring healing to a long neglected space.
Though a blacksmith, through the Gates Commission, Ferguson will also be a weaver, delicately and majestically intertwining the vestiges of our colonial past with the legacy of The Bahamas' African roots, and finally, with the beauty and utility of native and indigenous plants. Featured in the Gates are plants like the sisal, an agave variation and the silver thatch palm, one of the few native palm species to The Bahamas were and still are used to produce straw products. Now ubiquitously affiliated with the tourist economy, less than a century ago, the flesh of the sisal would have been used to produce commercial materials like rope, the palm, to make household items, water jugs, and brooms - uses that would have served Bain and Grants Town, historic free-African settlements, just Over-the--ill on which Villa Doyle, a former colonial residence, sits atop.
Like his spiritual practice, for Tyrone, there is no one right way to produce his art, except that it be done authentically and excellently. Guiding the metal, as he sometimes does with those in need, through his ministry, the process is a give and take. In that symbiotic relationship, where there are two speakers, he forges new and nuanced conversations. What emerges however, will be singular. Once Tyrone and the metal have spoken, the Gates will tell their story.
This incredible exhibit, both art and function, the renderings of which can be seen below, is a perfect reflection of Tyrone's portfolio and is a testament to the power of how history informs and is renewed by the present. Best said in his own words, "It feels to me like all the work that I have done, all the gates that I have built, they were preparation for these Gates. The Gates symbolize the work that I have done in order to honor the space. The Gates are supposed to have a sense of freedom, openness and airiness to it. It is also a reference to who we aspire to be as a creative community, moving towards light (luminosity). Actually, I believe that certain energies go into this type of work and most people will experience the energy, will feel it, regardless of understanding or acknowledgement of it. The Gates will bring a sense of healing, not only to myself, but freshness to the space. Life is possible. Light is possible. Seeing into the future is possible with these Gates."

Doongalik Studios is busy preparing for its TS2017 Exhibition under the theme "Inside/Outside Naturally" which will feature the works of eleven multi-disciplined artists as a part of the weekend art bus tour of six Bahamian art galleries on April 1st and 2nd.
Doongalik's pre-event activities will begin in the back gardens on Monday, March 27 when the public is invited to observe master sculptor Antonius Roberts, as he completes a live installation of the first Sacred Space in eastern New Providence from 9.30 a.m. until 3 p.m., by carving one of his renowned sacred figures from a rooted coconut tree that lost its top during Hurricane Matthew.
Roberts is eager to establish this landmark, which will be another first for him in his quest to provide such contemplative and healing art sanctuaries throughout The Bahamas, especially during these times of anguish and uncertainty.
"As artists, we are extremely conscious of the importance of making these creative statements in public spaces. This has been my mission since 2006 when I created the first Sacred Space with Tyrone Ferguson at Clifton Pier, followed by the second on Blake Road, and others throughout the Bahamian archipelago. People naturally seek hope and healing, and I am thrilled that I am able to use my talents towards this greater purpose," Roberts said.
"We are humbled and honored that Antonius will be gracing the property with this Sacred Space. What an amazing preview event for the TS Tour!" enthused gallery owner, Pam Burnside. Since we will videotape his installation, the TS weekend patrons will also be able to enjoy the experience."
Roberts' Sacred Space will stand amongst the garden along with the artwork of six additional artists including two ceramicists, a floral designer, a straw haute couturier, a multi-media artist, and a paper artist. These outside exhibits will be complemented by the works of three wood turners whose wood creations will be on display inside the gallery. The Doongalik TS2017 Exhibition will remain on display until Wednesday, April 26. Gallery hours are Monday to Wednesday, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Tickets for the Transforming Spaces Tour are available for purchase at Doongalik Studios and The Place for Art, the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas, and Hillside House. Much more information can be found on the TS website at www.tsbahamas.com.

John Beadle was born in 1964 on the island of New Providence in The Bahamas. He received his BFA and MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and the Tyler School of Art of Temple University respectively. Beadle delves into various art genres, including painting, printmaking, sculpture and installation. Often, his highly conceptual work consists of everyday materials such as wood, found objects or metal. According to Beadle, "Material - the found, already weathered stuff carries with it a fragmented narrative that makes for very interesting placement possibilities."
Beadle demonstrates great dexterity through the use of non-traditional material such as fishing hooks, machetes, and oars which are frequently contained in his works. The process of incorporating these found materials into the pieces presents an intimacy to the works that wouldn't otherwise be achieved - people can relate to them on a personal level, with materials that may be familiar outside of an art context.
Row Yah Boat is made up of a variety of materials, including wood, metal, plaster and other found objects. The viewer is presented with a trolley on wheels, carrying multiple plastered heads on top of a brownish-red, gravel-like/dirt-like material. Above the heads within the perimeter of the trolley hangs a wooden oar, delicately balancing on seven wires making a V-like shape. The oar extends outward over the gallery floor, where a glimpse of blue string wrapped around catches the eye, providing a stark sense of contrast against the weathered brown wood of the oar.
Beadle's statement for the project states: "The piece started with me collecting the oar. The piece answers nothing. 'Row, row, row yah boat. Row, row, row yah boat. Row, row, row yah boat gently down the stream, gently down the stream, merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily life is but a dream.' Wake up! This piece started with me collecting the oar! How did I get here? The dream."
The poetic arrangement of Beadle's statement raises many questions and leaves interpretation wide open for the viewer in determining the concepts behind this sculpture.
The oar is traditionally used as a means of transportation through a technique known as sculling. Sculling is unique to The Bahamas and consists of the sculler standing at the back of the boat facing forward, with his right foot forward. The sculling notch is located on the port crown of the transom and balances in a notch sculpted into the back of the boat. In the left hand, the sculler grips the oar and pushes and pulls in a rhythmic motion. Through this effort, the boat is propelled through the water with great power and minimum effort.
A theme of physical movement is evident in this work, directly alluding to a form of transportation that feels somewhat primitive, but also authentic to The Bahamas and its people. Many of Beadle's works deal with the gloom of illegal migrants and the inevitable identity struggle that encompasses the life of an immigrant. He often questions what it means to be a Bahamian person. For that reason, the back and forth motion associated with the oar may be a symbol of the movement of people from one place to another, and the complexities that come with establishing stability in a new environment.
Beadle's formal choice of stringing the oar amidst the trolley with seven repeated identical wires adds an aura of the sensation of movement, particularly the rhythmic, steady motion that a man executes through his sculling.
On top of the trolley, lie twenty sculpted white plastered heads. Details on the faces are limited, with only the subtle engravings of eyes, a nose, a mouth and ears presented to the viewer. We cannot distinguish the gender of the heads, nor the race or age. Some heads are stuffed with silk cotton balls and others with simply crafted wire structures. The blue rope seen on the top of the oar is repeated on some of the heads, deliberately covering their eyes and mouths. Various heads have been covered with the brown gravel/dirt-like fine powder that they sit on, and one head is lined with spikes from a silk cotton tree. The heads are intentionally placed with materials that are associated with that of a laborer.
Beadle is making a plethora of references with his choice of found material interacting with the sculpted heads. One of the heads dominantly sits on top of a wooden pedestal, and two others are suspended on a wire platform. The variable heights animate the sculptures, providing a dynamic that feels rather active. The juxtaposition between physical movement and the lifeless heads exhibited without bodies adds an interesting layer of context to the piece. The idea of physical labor is presented through the oar and the trolley, but the emotionless heads provide a sense of a lack of expressive freedom.
Disembodiment has a role in society of being a type of unruliness that is visible to some, but invisible to most. According to Coates in 'Between the World and Me,' "Disembodiment is a kind of terrorism, and the threat of it alters the orbit of all our lives and, like terrorism, this distortion is intentional" (114). To Coates, being black in a white supremacist society is similar to living in constant fear. Black male bodies are thought of being insensitive, superhumanly strong and threatening. Trayvon Martin threw an adult man's head into concrete with consistent force, and Michael Brown was a demon who charged into a storm of bullets toward an officer's gun, with no hesitation. Despite these assumptions, Coates describes the black male body as vulnerable and poses the question of how it is to live in a body that is both scared and scary, simultaneously.
Beadle's choice to exclude facial details that may provide insight into the person's individuality further speaks to a lack of identity, an issue commonly felt by migrants. The piece shines a light on the worker, perhaps being used for his or her physical power, and commonly seen as an object rather than as an individual. Their bodies are used as a means of aiding in the completion of a task, like a machine perhaps, rather than a being of spiritual significance.
Beadle's use of a neutral color palette makes direct reference to the land, further emphasizing the job of a laborer, working conceivably in a field or on a farm. The piece in its entirety draws attention to the relationship between people, cultural identity, post-colonial labour and freedom in The Bahamas.
"Row Yah Boat" is currently on view in the NAGB's National Exhibition 8 through April 16, 2017.

The act of making art is often framed to and by many of us as a joyous extracurricular, a hobby, something therapeutic. While for many it can be this pleasant and easy experience, for those who consider themselves artists in the sense of being art-workers, it is a labour of love. It is perhaps therapeutic more in the sense of physiotherapy - hard work, blood, sweat, and tears, but the end goal is gaining a full range of motion, a freedom you hadn't anticipated but undoubtedly require. Art making is at once brilliant for mental health, but also the catalyst for a very specific kind of mania. This is the way that Jordanna Kelly, the 2016 winner of the Central Bank of The Bahamas' (CBoB) Open Category Competition, perpetually finds herself making and working.
Kelly is known for having, as she admits, a very involved process of making. This is evident in the meticulous nature of her current work 'Discarded Pearls' (2016) currently on show as part of the 8th National Exhibition (NE8). Beer bottles are filled with layers of sand collected from beaches throughout the archipelago and displayed alongside macro-shots of the sand, documenting the variety within each shore of the islands. It is a process that is at once scientific, methodical, and, quite frankly, a little torturous.
For her solo show, however, she has perhaps reached levels of commitment to the hand-made production of her work that borders on the masochistic. Thousands of sheets of paper - and I must stress, this is not hyperbole - have gone into the series of wall-based and installation works for 'Bugs, Blessings, & Barriers' which opens at the Central Bank Gallery on March 3rd from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm. It all unfolded starting with the origami as a starting point, something that she revisited from her days at the College of The Bahamas (COB).
A work that she feels will have the most presence in the space is an interactive installation called 'Shower of Blessings.' This will be a 6ft x 6ft pedestal, and by stepping onto the platform, the audience becomes the artwork in a sense. The idea of the viewer becoming the viewed, of the audience becoming a vital part of the visual of the artwork is referred to as 'relational aesthetics,' a term coined by French critic Nicolas Bourriaud in his 1997 text of the same name. It creates work that is an experience, work that isn't complete until the viewer becomes part of it. It is a way to take away some of the power from the sanctitude of art, to allow you to touch and cross the distance that we so often achingly must obey as regular gallery-goers.
The audience will be invited to step onto the pedestal and utilise a sculptural umbrella prop from her days at COB. "The umbrella acts as a barrier, but it also has holes cut out in shapes of flowers and other beautiful things. I'm trying to say that sometimes it's good to let your walls or barriers down, to let some of these things
inundate you and to get a little wet. Sometimes through the negative things, if you share what's happening you can receive positivity. We hate the rain, but it makes the flowers grow."
The idea of balance and appreciation of your past struggles as you move into new spaces in your life is the main idea that Kelly wants to impart. It is fitting, given the laborious nature of the work. Papercuts and paper burns (this is an actual observable phenomenon just by looking at her fingers) are the trials she must go through, stints of working from 7:00 am til 1:00 am the next day: all these things give way to works that are bright, beautiful, colorful, intricate, and delicious to the eye to partake in. She has given us what we want, but without wanting purely to satisfy - it is beautiful work with the purpose of being enjoyed for certain while providing us with a moment of gratefulness for our tribulations of the past.
"Some of them are flowers that are 1.5cm but made of 5 sheets of paper, and others are one sheet of paper but made using 38 folds. They are labours of love. For the entrance, there's going to be an installation of an overhang suspended above everyone's heads holding 5000 hand-folded paper flowers. I want it to be something a little overwhelming. You won't be able to see them for what they are as you enter, but when you move upstairs and get on the same level, you'll be able to see the flowers in greater detail."
Hindsight and the way it engenders an appreciation for the things that shape our present is the notion Kelly wishes to leave us with. Just as her wall-based works are collaged layers - some dark, some light - that create a single cohesive image, she wants us to see our lives as a collage where the darker elements are entirely necessary to add depth and perspective to our respective bigger pictures.