NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Reimagining tourism’s place in The Bahamas and the Caribbean as a whole, and stripping away the romanticism of the country’s primary industry, Bahamian artist Blue Curry presents a fresh perspective in his latest solo show.
Beach towel flags, casino dice tossed in pink sand, and strobing conch shells are only a few features of this internationally acclaimed Spanish Wells artist’s ‘Leisure Aesthetics’ solo exhibition. It’s also his first local comeback in over a decade.
In this work, Curry explores the way tourism impacts local culture, criticizing the illusion of paradise and the way it tends to stereotype nations in the Caribbean.
Founding Director of Tern Gallery, where Curry’s work is displayed, Amanda Coulson says that the artist has been working with this concept for a long time.
“He is questioning the esthetics around the tourist industry, not just in the Bahamas, but in the Caribbean in general, and how that kind of esthetic just takes over our lives and sort of flattens our own culture,” Coulson said.
She added that there’s also a challenge with these stereotypes in art where materials from the land are considered native or exotic, because of the location but contemporary artists in other places are not subjected to the same interpretations.
“So other artists from other countries can use, say, the materials they find in their city and it’s considered very contemporary and very avant-garde and very modern. But, you know, you put a conch shell on something and suddenly that’s native and even maybe a little backwards.
“So he’s really trying to say, no, that’s not the case. We, first of all, we have our own culture. Second of all, we’re intelligent, avant-garde, contemporary people, as well as having our tradition and heritage. And I’m going to make art that is conceptual and difficult but with the materials from our own space.”
Also weighing in on the concept of Curry’s artwork, Professor at Univerity of The Bahamas Dr. Ian Bethell-Bennett whose expertise is in post-colonialization. He spoke about the discussion he had with the artist on ‘Leisure Aesthetics’ opening night.
“We walked into how the space, which is what my book is about, is being leisured. So basically it is being remapped to form a paradise image that doesn’t exist anywhere but exists everywhere.
“So as Amanda Colson would have said, it’s flattening out our existence. But this is what Bahamians believe they want. This is what many people have bought into as what the authentic Bahamas is,” Bethell-Bennett said.
Curry’s exhibition also features a video of a man knocking off the leg of the Columbus statue in front of the government house building and a live guitarist in a straw hat and colorful buttoned-down short-sleeved shirt playing the song “Yellow Bird” to drive home his message.
The exhibition will be open at the Island House Tern Art Gallery until October 29.
