My work investigates memory and nostalgia to create unexpected narratives surrounding identity. In 2019, I uncovered a family tree which traced my lineage back eight generations from Bermuda via St Kitts to Nigeria,Africa. Driven by an exploration of my own heritage, in this exhibition, I examines the lasting impacts of slavery: re-imagining the identities of enslaved Bermudians in a series of striking portraits, texts, and installation inspired by the Bermuda Slave Registers and historic photographs in the Bermuda Archives. Bermuda is the Bahamas, it is Barbados, it is Jamaica, it is the US South. It is our diasporic story of triumph. In scrutinizing my personal history, and utilizing archival imagery to present historical fiction, I weave an imagined narrative of the diaspora and its people, merging past, present, and future.

Bio:
Gherdai Hassell transforms diasporic narratives into an imaginative landscape, reinterpreting visual elements from the past to envision new trajectories for the future. She uses mixed media techniques to thread and weave layers of history and the complexities of Caribbean heritage, post colonial narratives and identity through painting, fashion and collage. Through her usage of regional mythologies, archival imagery, elements of science fiction and fantasy, she presents identities and ancestral tales as fluid, continuously evolving. The work centers migration and movement of the body. Through vibrant collage artworks on paper and canvas, textiles, soft sculptures and immersive installations, Hassell merges various cultural symbols, including textile patterns, botanical motifs, folklore, literature, and symbols of resilience and defiance. Her work typically centers female characters, her “Alibii, simultaneously existing within realms of past, present, and future. Like time, her characters are in flux. The empowered subjects of Hassell’s work often meet the viewer’s gaze directly, asserting their individuality and agency amidst ongoing transformation.

Social media: @hassell_free
Website: gherdaihassell.com