ACCLAIMED: Lillion Blades, who has launched her first solo exhibit in 12 years in her Nassau hometown.

Published On:Wednesday, March 17, 2010

NOELLE NICOLLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

nnicolls@tribunemedia.net

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CCLAIMED Bahamian artist Lillian Blades launched her first solo exhibit in 12 years in her Nassau hometown.

She exhibited 36 pieces, mostly work from 2009, at the New Providence Art and Antiques (NPAA) gallery during the Transforming Spaces art tour this weekend.

Transforming Spaces is a popular nine-gallery art show organised annually by participating galleries.

During the one day show, art enthusiasts are bused around on a tour of the galleries.

Mrs Blades sold four pieces during the show and had several pending deals when she returned to Atlanta.

She settled there with her husband after completing a masters degree in Fine Arts at Georgia State University. Her exhibit will be up until April 4.

"She has certainly been very well received here and abroad too. There is a lot of love for her here, so many people supported her while she was away and going to school," said Jay Koment, NPAA director.

Living across the ocean, Mrs Blades may not be as visible as other Bahamian artists like John Cox, who lives and works in Nassau, but she is just as prolific.

Her work can be found is collections as far away as Germany and South Africa. The Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and The East Atlanta Library showcase some of her most prized mixed-media assemblages.

"All the comments I got and the people were supper supportive. I got to reconnect with a lot of artists, friends. I can't say there was anything I did not like. It has just been too long. Transforming Spaces created the opportunity for me to see everybody at one time and then to have all of the work there and to be able to talk about it, just really intensified (the experience)," said Mrs Blades.

Unique

She hopes to have her worked selected for inclusion in the new airport complex under construction at the Lynden Pindling International Airport. There are 13 sites in the airport that will be populated with work from 38 artists. Mrs Blades submitted two proposals.

"Her work is unique in its materials and its use of material. It's unique in the way her work symbolises both generational connections, as well as connections that may be historical - Africa, US, Bahamas, and her own personal connections. The colours can be very vibrant so they certainly liven any space up," said Mr Koment.

The title of the Nassau exhibit is "Reconnecting". Among the major reconnections featured in her work are linkages to the matriarchal lines of her father and her mother - who died in child birth.

Mrs Blades' mother was a seamstress; the aunt who raised her was a florist, and her grand mother was also a florist. She said her family is credited with pioneering the art form in the country.

Instead of regular paint, Mrs Blades uses cut fabric, predominantly with floral designs, to cover canvases of varying sizes, before they are quilted together to create unique mixed media designs.

She said her art represents a bringing together of fragments, not just textiles. In one of her pieces an abstract 'Goombay Punch' looking face protrudes from the main canvas, styled using drift wood and an old pair of 'Made in China' wrist bangles.

"When I went to graduate school my professor challenged me to think a little more symbolically in how I treated the theme (mother and child). I started to see my relationship with my mom as a microscopic view of my relationship with everybody in terms of their relationship with their ancestral past," said Mrs Blades.

"Everyone in the Diaspora is somewhat disconnected from their homeland. The idea of finding out about your ancestral roots, your foundation, makes you stronger. So it is like a broader approach to the mother and child theme," she said.

Mrs Blades is currently working on commissions and public art projects in Atlanta.