Video/Performance Art

Plucked, 2020

Paranoia, 2017

Summer 2016, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of The Bahamas published a travel advisory for Bahamian students and tourists visiting certain parts of the United States of America due to tension sparked by police brutality against black people. The advisory was not well received by the US. Ironically, the US Embassy in The Bahamas and cruise lines published many travel advisories for their citizens and patrons in reference to the increasing number of crime in New Providence, The Bahamas over the past five (5) years. Paranoia was created to exist in the middle of those advisories: a caution of being black in America and a caution of the increasing crime back home. Standing amongst African Americans, a Bahamian would not be recognizable at first glance. The distinction lies in our behaviour and accent/dialect. However, the same distinction that isolates us from other nationalities in the US would not be the saving grace in The Bahamas. Moreover considering the blatant xenophobia arising in parts of the United States, would my behavior and accent/dialect be a saving grace? This work was created to navigate these things and serve as a release of concerns as a black Bahamian studying in the United States

The Gaulin - She Went to The Water, 2016

Uploaded by Jodi Minnis on 2016-12-12.

Images from The Gaulin She Went to the Water Performance at the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas in 2016.

I Fried Fish For Me

FISH, 2019

Oil, acrylic paint, and house paint on canvas
52in x 60in

ABOUT

I Fried Fish for Me takes the communal activity of cleaning and frying fish and makes it a singular action for the benefit of one. As a young girl growing up, I watched my grandmother bend over an iron tub filled with fish which she scaled, gutted, seasoned and fried for her family and their children. In this instance, I bought one fish, gutted it, seasoned it and fried it. I fried fish for me.

I Fried Fish For Me 2, 2019

I Fried Fish For Me 3, 2019

Home

Not Your bahama mama

Video Work

NOT YOUR BAHAMA MAMA

ABOUT

Not Your Bahama Mama centers the mammy archetype, the “Bahama Mama” salt shaker. During the Jim Crow era, the mammy, a racist caricature of black women, was created and commodified to perpetuate the idea that black women enjoyed servitude and domestic catering to white families. Within American society, the most identifiable mammy archetype is Aunt Jemima. However, within Bahamian society, the prevalence of the items goes unnoticed because they exist in tourist spaces as souvenirs. The Bahamas has a tumultuous relationship with tourism, and in this body of work I am reclaiming and rejecting this archetype Moreover, I am questioning the motive for the continuous perpetuation of the black woman and man as these racist stereotypes in a country that which stands on hospitality.