Cross Currents: 1st Cayman Islands Biennial
This year the National Gallery launched its first Biennial exhibition and accompanying awards series, with the inaugural edition entitled Cross Currents– in part due to the absence of an overarching theme and in recognition of the eclecticism of the various works on display. Works exhibited were shortlisted by an international jury and ranged from sculpture and textiles to painting and photography, together with installations and performance art. To recognise the most accomplished work in each year’s exhibition – in terms of technical and conceptual strength, as well as originality – two prestigious Biennial awards have been developed: the Bendel Hydes and Emerging Artist awards. The establishment of the awards component of the Biennial forms part of a larger commitment by the National Gallery to support professional development opportunities for the arts sector at large.
As is often the case with such exhibitions, one of the primary purposes of the Biennial is to encourage artists to challenge the boundaries of their artistic practice by presenting work that is experimental and free from the usual commercial constraints. ‘Art for art’s sake’, rather than work intended for sale on the commercial art market, invariably looks and feels different, and the National Gallery provides a critical support structure for local artists in Cayman to show their work in the confines of a professional gallery space. Much of the work in this year’s exhibition is also more politically, environmentally and socially conscious, touching on many of the pressing issues currently facing us as a society. Several of the featured artists have chosen to use the platform this biennial provides them with to call attention to the threats faced by our marine and terrestrial environment, from global warming to over-development and the urgent need to recycle the waste plastic generated by our rapidly growing population. This kind of response was at least partially anticipated, since the “open call” invitation (click here to see the artists’ brief), was intended to inspire a wide range of submissions. It was not an accident that the exhibition ended up with the title “Cross Currents” – the choice of subject matter by each artist was as varied as the media they worked with, and as a whole the works reflect how we negotiate our interpretations of the past- both in understanding the present and imagining our collective futures.
The Exhibition and Awards
The First Cayman Islands Biennial Exhibition opened to the public on 9th February 2019 in the National Gallery lower exhibition hall and Dart auditorium and is scheduled to close on 6th June.
On 10th April 2019, we were privileged to have many of our 42 exhibiting artists attend the Cross Currents awards ceremony, where we presented the Bendel Hydes Award and the Emerging Artist Award to the winning artists and runners up. The event also provided a fitting occasion to celebrate the contribution of all the participating Biennial artists and their exceptional work.
In naming the signature award, NGCI thought it fitting to honor one of Cayman’s most celebrated artists, Bendel Hydes. In his 45-year career, Hydes became one of the first Caymanian artists to formally study art at university and to gain international recognition. His works – which have been exhibited in Europe and the United States and can be found in many private collections – are strongly influenced by memories of his Caymanian childhood. It, therefore, seemed appropriate to name the Biennial’s principal award after him, which was presented to the exhibition’s overall winner. The second award, for the Emerging Artist category, honours the leading artist in the under-30 category.
Both awards have been developed to provide much-needed grant support for artists at the established and emerging level, with the Bendel Hydes Prize winner receiving a financial prize of CI$5,000 and an invitation to exhibit at the National Gallery, and the Emerging Artist receiving a developmental grant towards a residency programme or related training opportunity valued at CI$2,000.
The Winners & Runners Up
Winner of the Bendel Hydes Award was Nasaria Suckoo Chollette for her installation piece Becoming Again. This thoughtful work has as its focus the traditional materials used in Cayman to make beds and bedding; it reminds us of the resourcefulness of early Caymanians in creating a comfortable home environment with the limited materials they had at hand, and then reimagines this domestic space within an altogether more spiritual dimension through the work’s elevated structure, which appears closer in feel to that of a sacred altarpiece.
Runner up in the Bendel Hydes Award was the beautiful Tides of Change by Sarah McDougall. This delicate work – the smallest in the exhibition – illusionistically mimics the structure of coral using traditional Caymanian textile techniques, drawing comparisons between the fragility of our natural environment and that of our disappearing cultural heritage.
NGCI also wanted to recognise the work of emerging talent by way of a separate award for exhibiting artists under 30. Runner-up in this category was Brandon Saunders for his three-part series Desdemona, Mallory, Avdimi. The panel considered this work the most experimental in the exhibition, not least because of the artist’s use of computer code and a special algorithm- rather than the traditional tools of a pencil or paintbrush- to cleverly subvert the genre of classical portraiture. Saunder’s is studying in the UK so asked his father, Christopher Saunders Elected Member for Bodden Town West, to accept the award on his behalf.
Winner in the Emerging Artist category was Paige Jordison for her installation piece Who Ya Fah?. Here the artist – using Cayman’s maritime heritage as the context for her work – explores the role of family in the shaping of individual identities in small societies such as those of the Cayman Islands. Visitors are actively encouraged to touch this exhibit and participate in the art through written contributions in the pages of a journal, a receptacle of collective memories that are also poetically alluded to in the ‘message in a bottle’ that hangs alongside the metal hull and sailcloth structure of Jordison’s work. Jordison is studying in the USA so asked her mother, Becky Jordison, to accept the award on her behalf.
Both curatorially and in terms of the sheer size and scope of an exhibition project that spans all three islands- with a satellite exhibition at the Little Cayman Museum and a site-specific installation by artist Kaitlyn Elphinstone displayed at multiple locations around Cayman Brac- Cross Currents represents a truly ambitious undertaking. NGCI would like to thank each of the participating artists, our exhibition sponsors Butterfield and supporters of the gallery for making this first Biennial such a success. Our programme of events, which have been designed to support artists in further developing their practice, continues until June across Grand Cayman and the sister islands. Further details of Biennial-related events can be found on our website.