Art and Artist Community – Nassau Bahamas
It may traditionally have been a field for men, but an increasing number of women in the Caribbean region are literally building foundations that place them on entirely new ground — all in the world of carpentry.
The latest move is taking shape in The Bahamas with adult classes popping up around town on Woodworking for Women.
This project, developed by the artist Ebony G. Patterson, seeks to investigate the performative association of gender through explorations of the masculine as it relates to popular Jamaican dancehall culture. The project relates to an ongoing body of work that has utilized the performative, as mode for explorations of masculine ideologies that function within dancehall construct.
The project was broadcast live via Facebook on Saturday, March 10, 2012 and at Popopstudios at 4pm
Popop’s resident ceramicist and textile artist, Katrina Cartwright was firing elements of her Transforming Spaces project, along with some of the tiles she is preparing for the Popop kitchen.
Transforming Spaces Tickets are $30 and are now on sale at The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas (328-5800/1) and Doongalik Studios Art Gallery on Village Road (394-1886).
This year Transforming Spaces is focused around a single central theme – “Fibre” – in order to explore art made out of native materials. With eight art spaces displaying work by over 50 artists, viewers can expect to see a range of innovative contemporary Bahamian artwork.
For the Transforming Spaces Fibre theme Richardo Barrett is designing and creating light fixtures using onion skin. “The concept and design of my intended pieces could be manifested through various elements, like coconut bark or dried banana leaves, but onion skin stood out to me.”
Angelique Nixon, a literary artist, has been working at Popopstudios on her “Fibre” project for Transforming Spaces 2012. Angelique uses poetry, collage, photographs, Androsia fabric, straw, cotton, sand, and plant materials to express childhood stories and connection to the Bahamian land/seascape, as she creates a visual myth memoir of homeplace.
Popop-based artist Phoebe Luk has chosen silk cotton. Techniques used in her project include silk screen printing and spinning raw cotton (from an actual silk cotton tree) with a handmade spindle.
Popop-based artist Margot Bethel’s concept for the Transforming Spaces, “Fibre” theme centers around the use of seeds and other organic elements found in plants.
Through her artwork for Transforming Spaces 2012, Katrina hopes to convey the message that even though throughout history skin colour has bred varying levels of racism, women – whether white or black – have always conformed to society’s view of their role, no matter how restrictive that role may be.