The Tribune

THE Transforming Spaces Art Tour 2014 starts today with a number of activities to celebrate the event’s 10th anniversary.  

Transforming Spaces is expanding to cover four days, with an evening VIP gala opening, a series of talks, a film and video night, and other events to complement the themed exhibitions that will showcase the art explosion that has taken place in the Bahamas in recent years.

Organisers of the art tour have invited a number of local and international artists to showcase work.

Participating galleries include the D’Aguilar Art Foundation, the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas, PopopStudios, Doongalik Studios, Liquid Courage, Hillside House and the Antiquities Monuments and Museums Corporation.  

The art spaces will premiere their shows starting today. Thereafter all exhibitions will be open to the public.

Wednesday, April 2

Kick-off Conversation

This kick-off conversation will open the 2014 Transforming Spaces tour with an informal gathering and artist discussion. Join in to hear Holly Bynoe (St Vincent and the Grenadines), Malaika Brooks-Smith-Lowe (Grenada), Kendra Frorup (the Bahamas and US), Joscelyn Gardner (Barbados), and Holly Parotti (the Bahamas) speak about their creative processes for this years theme of “Water”, while enjoying food and drink at the Suga Shack. The event begins at 7pm and is open to the public.

Thursday, April 3

Film Night: “Poetry is an Island”

Transforming Spaces is excited to present the first Nassau screening of “Poetry is an Island”, a feature documentary film that provides an intimate look at St Lucian Nobel laureate, poet and playwright Derek Alton Walcott. The event will be held at the Antonius Roberts Studio and Gallery at Hillside House beginning at 7pm. It is free and opened to the public.

Friday, April 4

Lecture Series

The National Art Gallery of the Bahamas will host a lectures series featuring various artists from 5pm-8pm and is open to the public:

“Artistic development at Baha Mar” (5pm - 5.30pm)

Bahamian artist and creative art director of the Baha Mar art programme John Cox will give attendees an inside look at the new studio space and creative opportunities planned for the art programme at the luxury development.

“The Curatorial Process of ‘Float’ ” (5.45pm - 6.15pm)

Nicole Smythe Johnson of Jamaica will be featured in this segment of the lecture. “The Curatorial Process of Float” is an examination of contemporary curatorial research and practice for the upcoming exhibition “Float”, running May 17 - June 21 at Transformer in Washington, DC. Curated by Ms Smythe Johnson, the exhibition will include work by Caribbean artists Rodell Warner, Marlon James, Leasho Johnson and Deborah Anzinger.

“Unsettling the Archive” (6.30pm - 7pm)

This presentation examines how Barbadian artist Joscelyn Gardner’s recent works (multimedia installations and lithographic portraits) attempt to unsettle the archive from a post-colonial feminist perspective by subverting colonial methods of documentation and re-inserting the voices and images of Creole women omitted from official history. Reflecting on water as both a regenerative space of memory and medium for burying and flushing away the past, and on colonial and patriarchal assumptions of the ‘natural’ right of (white) male privilege, it culminates in a discussion of two works in which the historical text becomes literally unfettered.

“Making Work Away from Home” (7.15pm - 8pm)

A panel discussion will be held on this subject. Director of the National Art Gallery Amanda Coulson leads a discussion with a panel of Bahamian and Caribbean artists about the benefits and limitations of migration on their creative practices.

Panellists include Blue Curry, James Cooper, Jason Bennett and Heino Schmid.

Saturday, April 5, and Sunday, April 6

Bus tours of seven galleries at 9am and 2pm.

Buses will depart from #45 Campbell Marine Centre (formerly Dockendale/Manx Corporate Centre) on West Bay Street and will return there at the end of the tour.