January 11, 2021 - Bermuda National Gallery

Let Me Tell You Something

The doors to the gallery have reopened, providing a four-week window to see Let Me Tell You Something the 2020 Bermuda Biennial before it closes on the 6^th February. The exhibition opened in early March when the coronavirus pandemic had yet to reach our shores. The artworks were all made before anyone had heard of Covid-19 and yet so many of them speak to the tumultuous events that were to unfurl in the year ahead.

Looking at the Biennial artworks today in light of 2020, many have been imbued with a new, almost prescient relevance. From the notion of home, transformed in ways we could never have foreseen, explored by Antoine Hunt; to the underlying anxiety so humorously captured by Bryan Ritchie, the works in Let Me Tell You Something remind us that the best of contemporary art reflects the moment in which it exists.

To celebrate final run of the exhibition, we caught up with several of the artists to look back at their work and discuss what it means in the context of twelve months which we will never forget.

becoming by Katie Ewles 2020 Bermuda Biennial Bermuda National Gallery — 2020 Bermuda Biennial artwork *Becoming* by Katie Ewles, 2019. Mixed media installation. 8 x 20 ft.

Katie Ewles on how our individual responses affect the community:

“There are obvious ways in which the pandemic has added new context to the installation: a participant choosing whether to install their tile as part of one of the growing formations or to isolate it away from the other tiles might now feel the experience is strangely analogous to the choices and challenges we are currently facing as individuals with our society.

Becoming is fundamentally about change and evolution – the artwork develops with the choice of every participant, and with the added context of the pandemic, each participant’s choice suddenly feels much more critical. Many tiles are crowded together, creating dynamic areas of dense color, texture, and contrast. Other tiles are boldly isolated from the growing formations.

While at first the larger formations might appear paramount to the peripheral tiles, now, within the added context of the pandemic, these structures feel unexpectedly vulnerable: susceptible to our human tendency to want to contribute to something larger, creating structures in constant flux – unpredictable; undefined. In contrast, the outlying tiles have gained a silent power: quietly filling space, removed from the focal point, but nonetheless carrying great impact in creating a network that reaches across the entire space.

What I suppose has most circumstantially changed my understanding of the artwork in terms of the pandemic is my perception of the areas that have not been filled in. What before I thought of as empty squares, waiting to be filled, now feel like they stand for something much more: they represent a year of restriction; a year of choices to abstain; a year of creating alternatives. They in themselves represent unpredictability and potential.

In terms of what Becoming has become, these empty squares illustrate what may have been lost, but also hope that there is more to come. In the same way that the outlying tiles could be understood to represent a new beginning, these empty tiles are filled with the power of what can be.”

Christina Hutchings Fast Talk 2020 Bermuda Biennial — 2020 Bermuda Biennial artwork *FAST TALK* by Christinas Hutchings, 2019. Ink on paper and plexiglass. 17 x 13 in.

Christina Hutchings on digital communications:

“The historic events of 2020 have shifted the way I look at digital communications and my 2020 Biennial artwork. FAST TALK was made before the 2020 pandemic. It is a linear drawing and a collage combination. The ink lines and metal rods are representations of the crisscrossing paths of undersea communication cables and the orbiting overhead communication satellites which transmit our day-to-day information.

My view about the artwork has shifted from imagining our words and day to day information as a scrambled digital code transmitted by undersea cables stretching across the sea floor, or orbiting satellites above; to an appreciation for a greater capacity to connect face to face.

The digital communications of the 2020 pandemic permit a higher level of human connection among family and friends by conveying visual information, in fixed images as well as in real time. Because of this, we can better share, our emotional connections, even in the absence of physical proximity.

There is second adjustment in the way I view FAST TALK. In the artwork, the ink lines and metal rods represent the communication cables; I imagine them to be ropes or mooring lines which secure our island to the mainland continents. This image of the small island of Bermuda being affixed to large landmasses – the rest of the world – alleviates the feelings of remoteness on the island. Which is an added comfort during this time of isolation.”

Jayde Gibbons All The Kings Men 2020 Bermuda Biennial — 2020 Bermuda Biennial artwork *All The Kings Men* by Jayde Gibbons, 2019. Photography and mixed media. 72 x 96 in.

Jayde Gibbons on the Black Lives Matter movement:

“The Black Lives Matter movement has simply amplified what I and countless others have been saying for decades. It is exciting to see that the Black Lives Matter Movement has had an impact on the local art scene, and I believe that it’s because of this, that black Bermudian artists have recently been allowed to occupy space in spaces that haven’t been so welcoming to us in the past.

The purpose of Queendom Heights has, and will always be, to instill a sense of pride in my Bermudian people, specifically Black Bermudians. Queendom Heights is a direct manifestation of what we’ve known since the beginning of time, that Black Lives Matter, and that we are real people whose stories and traditions deserve to be documented and celebrated, not exploited because we’re trending.”

Arie Haziza Wild Randomness 2020 Bermuda Biennial Bermuda National Gallery — 2020 Bermuda Biennial artwork *Wild Randomness* (Triptych) by Arié Haziza, 2020.
Mixed media on canvas. 48 x36 x 2 in.

Arié Haziza on the impact of Black Swan events:

“To me, the ongoing pandemic has certainly brought home this idea that the future is what’s left after our complex and hyper-connected world is disrupted. This was introduced in my previous artworks but not fully developed. Along those lines, I have started exploring various ways to represent and experience what is ultimately a smaller and smaller physical world we are living in.”

Catherine White Figment 2020 Bermuda Biennial — 2020 Bermuda Biennial artwork *Figment* by Catherine White, 2020.
UV print on aluminium. 12 x 36 in.

Catherine White on loss:

“This period of time truly sharpens the point that moments are fleeting. How many people are now thinking back to the last moment they saw their loved ones? So many untimely passings.

As someone who was sheltering alone during the pandemic, there is the connection between people that was also keenly lost. I remember heading out on early morning walks during the first lockdown, and the simple pleasure of bidding a stranger “good morning”. Isolation from family and friends, can create a void where you lose who you are. Connection grounds you.

Loosening these links between people over last year will have a lasting impact and those moments together that we do have should be cherished.”

Click here for a virtual tour of the 2020 Bermuda Biennial exhibition, sponsored by Bacardi Limited.

Dennis Joaquin

The City of Hamilton’s mayor, Charles Gosling, together with Bermuda National Gallery director Peter Lapsley last week unveiled two murals produced as part of the Peaceful Art Protest in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. The public artworks mark a collaboration between the BNG and VIVID – the City of Hamilton’s Public Art Initiative as part of the programming for Let Me Tell You Something, 2020 Bermuda Biennial.

The artworks were submitted to the Peaceful Art Protest, a project conceived by former Bermuda Biennial artist Rachel Swinburne and were translated into murals by Dennis Joaquin. The Peaceful Art Protest, an open call for work by artists of all ages, was set up as a way for people to express their solidarity through art ahead of the historic Black Lives Matter march which took place in Hamilton in June 2020.

Mural artist Dennis Joaquin worked for BELCO for 25 years before retiring in 2010 and embarking on what he describes as “a creative journey of self-discovery.” The self-taught artist meticulously translated both a photograph taken by Meredith Andrews and three drawings made by primary school children into larger-than-life murals.

We caught up with Dennis, who credits the Peaceful Art Protest with reminding him of why he loves to create, to discuss his process and how for him the murals felt like “an historical event of energetic change.”

Mayor of Hamilton Charles Gosling, Peaceful Art Protest founder Rachel Swinburne, mural artist Dennis Joaquin and BNG Executive Director Peter Lapsley at the launch.

BNG: Have you always been creative?

DJ: I come from a very creative family with a history of mechanics, masons, and seamstress, so I was surrounded by creativity at a young age. My biggest influence has been my mother, as she has shown me there is no limit to what one can create, which is displayed through her handy works all around the house.

I have always been creative. I started by copying comic book illustrations using pencils, brought my first airbrush at 16 years old and started to paint portraits and decorated anything I could find. I started studying master artists and different techniques until I found my own style.

I learned how to sew and started designing and performing puppetry. l learned how to play the conga drums and wrote poetry. Before the lock-down in March, I had for the past five years been working with an Alzheimer’s and dementia charity, and was able to use these skills to entertain and teach art basics to our seniors at various homes.

This was all thanks to the positive creative surroundings that influenced me as a youth.

BNG: What was the first mural you painted? Have you painted many others across the island?

JD: The first mural that I was a part of creating along with Kendra Earls, is located on the front of the public restrooms at No1 Car Park on Front Street.

From there, I have created and or have been a part of the creation of ten murals on the island, most of which are on private estates.

Bermuda National Gallery Peaceful Art Protest Mural Project — The first mural, based on a photograph taken by Meredith Andrews, is located at No1 Car Park on Front Street. The location was chosen to mark the start of the route of the BLM march, the largest gathering of its kind in Bermuda.

BNG: How do you approach a mural project?

JD: Most murals I can approach free handed, as with the first art work that I painted with Kendra Earls. We had an idea of what we wanted, found illustrations on the subject matter and then painted it.

For the translation of photographs and illustrations that need be precise or to scale to a mural, like the Peaceful Art Protest murals, I use Photoshop. There I can design a stencil that will help me get all the right markers in place to create a good representation of the image I am to transfer. This is a technique that I learned as an air brush artist and graphic t-shirt designer.

BNG: What were the challenges of working on the Peaceful Art Protest murals?

JD: Probably the only challenge I had was the weather, hoping that the rain wouldn’t ruin the work, but the weather was great for the four days I worked on the Front Street Mural.

Again, weather was an issue for the primary school exhibit on Queen Street, but gratefully it held until I was able to complete all three images.

The energy and responses from the passers-by were most encouraging and inspirational. I had great positive conversations that uplifted my spirit and spurred me onward to paint more. It reminded me why I love to create.

Bermuda National Gallery peaceful Art Protest murals — A second mural, based on three drawings submitted by primary school children, can be seen at the top of Queen Street, along the route of the march which passed in front of this location as it moved through the City.

BNG: What has the overall experience of completing the Peaceful Art Protest murals been like for you?

JD: I feel honored to be a part of what I consider to be an historical event of energetic change. I almost feel like the scribes of old, recording today’s events for historical reflection.

BNG: Do you have any advice for young people who are interested in pursuing the arts?

JD: I think the most amazing gift that humans have, but take for granted, is the imagination. It is the greatest tool one has to express one’s inner being outwardly, the place where we make the invisible visible and create the world as one chooses it to be.

My advice would be to train your imagination daily. Like an athlete trains for strength, we train for visions of new ideas and progress for future goals. An imagination is a terrible thing to waste. So use it wisely.

The full selection of artworks submitted to the Peaceful Art Protest can viewed at www.peacefulartprotest.bm

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