Piece by Apryl Burrows

Published On:Wednesday, September 08, 2010

By ALESHA CADET

Tribune Features Writer

UNDER the theme "The Carbon Footprint", The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas invites the public to its Fifth National Exhibition (NE5) which began on September 4 and runs through January 31, 2011.

Various artist talks, walk-throughs and public programmes will be announced throughout the coming months that will support the dialogue created by the artists of the NE5.

Haiti's catastrophic magnitude 7.0 earthquake in January and other similar disasters in Chile, Turkey and the Iceland Volcanic ash as well as the BP oil spill served as catalyst for the theme of the exhibit( The Carbon Footprint: Bahamian Artists' 21st Century Response to the Environment ) which will explore ideas and narratives on issues relating to the 21st century global question of our carbon footprint and climate change.

According to the NAGB, these are just a few examples of the Earth reacting to the burdens and demands we manufacture and place on it. These events are all related one way or another to various forms of global climate change. It has been obvious that the planet has been showing us that we should strive to live in harmonious rhythm with nature. Should we choose to ignore the effects of our actions, we will have to accept the potential dire penalties.

The Gallery's National Exhibition is a biannual event where artists of The Bahamas are invited to submit works to a published Call for Artwork. However, this year the Gallery chose to work outside of the historical parameters of the selection process that has been in place since the Inaugural National Exhibition seven years ago.

" In the past, artists were invited to submit three pieces from their portfolio that had been produced in the past two years. This time they were asked to produce one piece in response to the theme with the objective of raising a social consciousness within our community,"

David A Bailey, acting director of the NAGB says, "It is the intention of the NAGB to explore this area from an artist's perspective seeing how they use their own unique artistic tools and vision to produce works that look at areas such as urbanisation, mobility (cars, planes, boats, etc.), domesticity, personal space, landscape, industrialisation, natural earth elements, fabricated non-natural elements, etc. that relate to carbon footprint and climate change."

The gallery received submissions from a record 38 artists and the jury made up of seven members selected 23 of those pieces

. Also, there is a balance of gender that was never present in any of the previous National Exhibitions: 12 male artists and 12 female artists (1:1).

The chosen artists of the NAGB's Fifth National Exhibition include: John Beadle, Sue Bennett-Williams, Dede Brown, Apryl Burrows, John Cox, Blue Curry, Claudette Dean, Jan Elliot, Kendra Frorup, Mick Guy, John B. Gynell, Ken Heslop, Kristaan Ingraham, Kishan Munroe, Lavar Munroe, Susan Moir-Mackay, Lynn Parotti, Dylan Rapillard, Heino Schmid, Natasha Turnquest and Eleanor Whitely. The media spanned the gamut and included found objects and mixed media, paintings, textiles, photography, graphic design, and quilt making.

In keeping with the idea of reducing the Gallery's own carbon footprint, the NAGB chose to forego commercially printing and mailing Invitations to the Opening Reception but opted the paperless route and digitally emailed invitations to its guest list.

Further to this, in another innovative move, the Gallery also decided to not produce a printed catalogue as in years past, but instead created a "digital" catalogue in the form of a specially designed and produced Jump Drive which features images of all the artwork, video interviews and information on the participating artists. The NE5 digital catalogue will be available for purchase in the Gallery Store, Mixed Media.

Additionally, Holly A Parotti, Curator of the NE5, and Assistant Curator, Jackson Petit, researched films that were included in the submission process to motivate those interested in submitting work and also to support a more cohesive conversation in the community.

Curator Holly Parotti said: "Arguably, zero impact is a myth. Everything that we do in our daily lives impacts the environment and we leave a carbon footprint. We can choose to continue to ignore issues like the effects of the interconnectedness of climate change and fuel consumption or we can reduce our dependency on materials or processes that endorse and amplify the devastation of our natural resources. By understanding one's contribution, one can begin to rectify the situation. By reacting, one acknowledges that there is a problem. By discussing, we can determine resolution. The hope of this exhibition is to enlighten and open the eyes of the Bahamian community so that we question our own impact environmentally and ecologically, she said.

The two films : Remembering Saro-Wiwa and Home, were profound and exceptionally moving. Remembering Saro-Wiwa is a monument to the activist Ken Saro-Wiwa who was executed because of his campaign against the annihilation caused by the presence, depletion and rape of the Niger Delta by certain oil companies. Yann Arthus-Bertrand's Home was also presented because of its beautiful aerial cinematography that documented the threat humanity imposes on the planet.

With the NAGB's vision to further catapult Bahamian art into the international arena, the Gallery invited two world renowned artists, Janine Antoni and Alfredo Jaar, along with Director of Gasworks, UK, Alessio Antoniolli, to be a part of the jury that judged the submissions. By doing this, the NAGB hoped to open the conversation to the international contemporary art platform.

"This was not an easy challenge but at the NAGB, we feel that with difficult and complex times, it is important that artists are given the opportunity to respond," said David Bailey.