NOT ALL HAS TO BE AS IT WAS
Curator’s Statement by
Jasmine Lee
Gherdai Hassell is a contemporary Bermudian artist who uses diverse media to address issues of identity, gender, and post-colonial viewpoints. She draws meaning and inspiration from the archives of her personal history, of Bermuda’s history, and of mythology. By investigating these sources, she finds and constructs characters such as her ‘Alibii’ figures, who become the voice through which she expresses thoughts of her own, imagined thoughts of others, and of possibilities – of herself, her community, and her home.
Inspired by the landscapes found in the Masterworks Collection, NOT ALL HAS TO BE AS IT WAS seeks to conceptually and materially reimagine the painted landscape. Hassell views landscapes as durational, as representations of time, past and future combined, rather than renderings of a specific time. Using non-traditional materials, including textile, soft sculpture, costumes, fabric-ink paintings, and collage, Hassell reimagines her ‘Alibii’ figures as ‘Land Lords,’ within her unique onionspawn landscapes, or dreamscapes. These ‘Land Lords’ are imagined as caretakers of the land and guardians of the ‘Onion Seed’, a concept inspired by author Nellie Musson and her text Mind the Onion Seed.1
Within her collages, Hassell incorporates elements from old maps, archival images, and housing plans from Bermuda’s Historic Land Commission Inquiry, alongside historical documents, biographies, and stories from significant historical moments - one example being the land expropriation at Tucker’s Town. She layers these historical references with contemporary visions to create a landscape of possibility, grounded in the past yet intersecting with the present and future. Hassell’s work is a vibrant amalgamation of myth and historical fact. She deftly intertwines the fantastical with the real, creating a visual narrative that offers a landscape anew. NOT ALL HAS TO BE AS IT WAS presents an alternative Bermuda landscape and imagines who the ‘Lords’ of our land could have been.
1 Musson, Nellie E., Mind the Onion Seed, 1979.
Charles Lloyd Tucker, 1913-1971
Bermudian
Nude in a Garden, c. 1950s
Oil on board, 14 1/4 x 10 in.
Gift of Mrs. Leslie Henriques, 1993 Collection of Masterworks Museum
INTERPRETING THE MASTERWORKS COLLECTION
The mission of the Masterworks Permanent Collection is to enrich the community through the collection, conservation, and display of artwork made in or inspired by Bermuda, and artworks made by Bermudian artists. The Collection aims to convey the story and history of the visual arts in Bermuda, and to expand the notion of what Bermudian art is. By viewing the Masterworks Collection, one can be better informed about the history, culture, and heritage of the Island.
While rich and diverse in its ability to recount histories of the Island from the 1700s to the present, the Collection predominantly features works from international artists who depicted Bermuda from their perspectives, largely within traditional media and with a focus on the formal qualities of Bermuda’s landscape. It is important that we ask how the Collection can continue to resonate with a contemporary Bermudian identity and reflect the current cultural and artistic landscape of Bermuda.
In contrast, artists are always in dialogue with their predecessors and peers, interpreting and imagining possibilities of meaning. Inviting contemporary artists into the Collection helps us to not only understand the present, but also to see and offer new ways of understanding the past, as collected, and in many ways crafted, by the Collection.
In this reimagining of the Collection by Gherdai Hassell, NOT ALL HAS TO BE AS IT WAS seeks to broaden and deepen our interpretation of landscape painting. It challenges, conceptually and materially, how we define a Bermuda landscape, outside of its formal qualities, outside of its formal histories.
Of particular influence on Hassell were two works by fellow Bermudian artists, Nude in a Garden, c. 1950s by Charles Lloyd Tucker, and All Work is Empty Save when there is Love, 1988 by Sharon Muhammad (formerly Wilson). These interpretations of the landscape, in particular the significance of figuration and activity within the landscape, inspired Hassell’s focus.
Gherdai Hassell
Geographies of Expansion
Geography II, 2024
Collage with acrylic and ink on paper 14 x 12 in.
Gherdai Hassell
Geographies of Expansion Geography III, 2024
Collage with acrylic and ink on paper 16 x 12 in.
ARTIST STATEMENT, GHERDAI HASSELL
NOT ALL HAS TO BE AS IT WAS explores and redefines the profound relationship between women and the land in a historically rich and complex setting. This exhibition draws from the historical account of land acquisition in Tucker’s Town, where the original stewards of the land were displaced, resulting in layers of disconnection and transformation.
Through a blend of myth, fantasy, historical fact and fiction, NOT ALL HAS TO BE AS IT WAS aims to heal and re-enchant the landscape by offering new narratives and perspectives. This exhibition marks the return of my ‘Artifacts’ project and is the first show in five years to focus centrally on my ‘Alibii’ figuration.
Each piece in this collection serves as a portal into alternative histories and imagined futures where ‘Alibii’ women are not only present but are central figures in the story of the land. The ‘Alibii’ women, inspired by the characters in author Nellie Musson’s Mind the Onion Seed, who are keepers of the onion seed, are envisioned as ‘Land Lords’caretakers and matriarchal figures.
In NOT ALL HAS TO BE AS IT WAS, these women are reimagined through rich visual storytelling and portraiture within the lush Bermudian landscape. The use of mythology and fantasy creates worlds where ancestral spirits guide and protect. Historical fiction reclaims and reshapes past narratives, giving voice to those who were silenced and envisioning a more just path for history.
Fashion serves as a tool for empowerment and expression, blending traditional elements with historical and futuristic designs. The main garment - a white dress and cape - tells a story, weaving together the past, present, and future into a seamless narrative of belonging and reclamation.
Sharon Muhammad (formerly Wilson), 1950Bermudian
All Work is Empty save when there is Love, 1988 Pastel on paper 18 x 15 in.
Gift of Marion Bishop (Outerbridge) in memory of Emily Liddel, 2002
Gherdai Hassell
Lord Bedford 1st of Hamilton Parish: A Love Letter from the Harbour, 2024
Watercolour, India Ink, acrylic, digital ink, various fabrics, faux pearls
45 x 31 in.
Gherdai Hassell Lord Blaxsun of St. George’s Parish: The Landscape Stood Erect, 2024
Watercolour, India Ink, acrylic, digital ink, various fabrics, faux pearls 62 x 36 in.
Gherdai Hassell
Lord Isleshire of Pembroke Parish: in Blossom Lilies Yell at Me, 2024
Watercolour, India Ink, acrylic, digital ink, various fabrics, faux pearls
38 x 35 in.
Hassell
Lord Rockhead of Sandy’s Parish: The Subview of the Viewpoint, 2024
Watercolour, India Ink, acrylic, digital ink, various fabrics, faux pearls
40 x 35 in.
Gherdai
FINDING SOFT GROUND
finding soft ground centres the past, reimagined as the present, investigating Bermuda’s truths hidden within landscapes. Our protagonist remains unnamed, unspoken, to draw connections with the varied identities of our envisioned female ‘Land Lords’. Her burgundy cape contrasts with the land’s green; soundscapes of water rush to encapsulate a space overflowing with stories never shared. The overgrowth of the grass she traverses, her garden and her land, embodies the history of Bermuda - it being unaddressed, ignored and unkept, causing the overgrowth. finding soft ground aims to work with what is forgotten or never thought of. To imagine who the Lords of our Lands could have been.
finding soft ground is directed by Essence Aikman and produced by Gherdai Hassell. Score for the film is by Hana Bushara. The film also features poetry, including the work Atlantic Whispers by Teonnae Hassell (featured on the following page).
film still from finding soft ground, 2024
Atlantic Whispers by Teonnae
Hassell
Beneath the azure skies of Bermuda's realm, Lies a history buried, a storm to overwhelm. Aspiration breathes in the island breeze, Where dreams of justice float among the palm trees.
Land of lush beauty, of emerald and blue, A canvas where the past and future brew. Once fertile ground, now fraught with pain, Of stolen land, and history's disdain.
Landowners stand tall, yet shadows they cast, On memories of a colonial past.
Land grabbed by force, by deceit and might, Torn from those who had the truest right.
Atlantic waters whisper tales of yore, Of slave ships' journey, of freedom's implore.
Wealth built on backs, blood in the soil, The legacy of an ancient, relentless toil.
Who claims ownership, who owns the right? Who mends the wounds, who sees the light? Landlords stand proud, with papers in hand, Yet justice eludes, a shifting sand.
Colonial ghosts in the Bermuda night, Remind us all of the endless fight. For wealth unfairly gained, and voices hushed, In the quest for fairness, hope is crushed.
Who gets to say what justice means? In a world divided by complex scenes. When will this patriarchal rule disband? When will fairness sweep across the land?
Afro-futurism rises, a beacon of hope, A vision where all can truly cope. Bermuda’s landscape, rich with history’s song, Whispers of a future where all belong.
May the tides of change wash clean the shore, May ownership be just, and wounds no more.
For in the heart of Bermuda’s grand display, Lies a hope for a fairer, brighter day.
The search ongoing, not yet found I’m looking for finding, soft ground.
ARTIST STATEMENT, ESSENCE AIKMAN
finding soft ground was an important project to take part in for me as it represents the beauty of the unknown, both personally and historically. This film allowed me to explore “herstories” of what could have been with the support of a full female and Bermudian team. Working alongside Hassell, who has an extensive past of research in archival work, allowed the film to evolve from my initial vision through her design in costuming and colour.
I was immediately drawn to a story of land and connection; what does home mean to us? I asked myself this in the creation of our protagonist. She is an owner, a Land Lord, yet embodies much more than that. There is an ancestral connection we attempt to play with here, subtly through her inherent ability to connect with the landscape. She stands out in her white and burgundy, while being consumed by the vast green. I wanted to play with the somewhat charged question of “what is home” and provide a calming experience; a returning to nature as our first home as humans. finding soft ground.
This film is of fiction, an imaginative story which aims to allow audiences to ask more questions of our past and be inspired to envision futures which include images of oneself.
production capture from finding soft ground, 2024
film still and production capture from finding soft ground, 2024
HOLY GROUND: A Synopsis
holy ground is an immersive installation by Gherdai Hassell and Yesha Townsend that reimagines the landscape as a site of generational healing, growth, and reflection. Through the union of installation, collage and mixed media poetry, this work invites viewers to experience the sun not only as a source of life, but as a symbol of rootedness, transformation, and continuity. Centring women’s work, the installation reflects on the legacies of mothering, nurturing, and bearing fruit, both literally and figuratively across generations.
The sun is referenced as a powerful visual and symbolic force. The collages are assembled within a circle, like the sun itself, and woven with archival documents, maps, and records from the Bermuda’s Historic Land Commission Inquiry — reclaiming historical narratives tied to land and dispossession. These archival fragments serve as both evidence and remembrance, grounding the work in the ongoing struggles and triumphs of Black Bermudian women whose histories are deeply intertwined with the land.
The sun as a motif draws inspiration from the legacy of Sally Bassett, a Bermudian figure often revered by Yesha as Bermuda’s ‘solar deity’. This spiritual connection to Bassett bridges past and present, offering a vision of the landscape as not just a physical space, but a sacred, living ground for contemplation, meditation, and renewal.
The poem assembled across from the sun details and emphasizes that which grows from the sun’s light. As a direct reference to Bermuda’s agricultural history, the sun as solar deity bears witness to and fosters the growth of an entire heritage, culture, and identity of a people. The stanzas reflect the product of what grows on holy ground while acknowledging the colonisation that is inherent in planting and in choosing land to be the environment that nurtures cultivation and expansion.
The poem highlights the importance of origin in its amalgamated form, and offers contemplation on the experience of growing, in the midst of that which challenges, that which allows for space, and that which has no bearings on the circumstantial outcome of the crop.
holy ground is an interactive place for respite, an opportunity to pause, reflect, and honour your own senses. It views the landscape as feminine, and how it has shaped, nurtured and been cared for by women.
It calls us to see the land as a site of both historical memory and future possibility, a space where new growth is always possible, grounded in the power of the sun.
Fertilization, an excerpt from An Oral History of Onions, Pt. 3, 2024
Pen and ink on paper
8.5 x 11 in.
Yesha Townsend
AN ORAL HISTORY OF ONIONS PT. 3
ARTIST STATEMENT, YESHA TOWNSEND
The poem present in holy ground is a study of ancestry and selfhood. This work is in conversation with previous pieces of my own namely, ‘An Oral History of Onions Pt. 1 & Pt. 2’ which are contemplations on the origins of Bermudian people with a focus on our agricultural and food-based history. With the onion being so synonymous with the Bermudian identity, it was important to interrogate the act of growing while making reference to all of the things that either inhibit or encourage growth. Both being important for the shape of the people that evolve as the fruits or produce of the soil.
My work is heavily dependent upon the literatures, historical texts, academic observations, studies, and all other miscellanea that chart Bermuda’s history. My work is informed by Bermuda, and thus all of its composition is that of historiography.
The poem ‘An Oral History of Onions, Pt. 3’, is formed of seven stanzas, each representing a stage of the agricultural cycle, and rendered in individualised form. This work was one of craft and consideration of poetic device and language. The question I constantly posed to myself was, ‘How do I allow others to enter the poem in a way that offers space and challenge?’ This begat the stanzas to take divergent form and to be collaged of various texts, media and imagery.
The identification of Sally Bassett as the solar deity is a work of remythologising Bermudian history and lore. Namely the inclination to call a hot day a ‘Sally Bassett Day’, as a place of reclamation and imagination. Sally shows up as cultural martyr and benevolent deity keeping watch of the evolutions of the people who grow on the soil she once walked on.
My work as a poet is to ensure that I seek to make precise that which is regarded in the feelings, or sight, or marrow, or touch. In ‘Oral History…’ I am asking, ‘What makes the ground holy?’ and ‘When does it stop being just ground?’ The answer resounding is us.
Index of Bermudian Soil
AAfrican Dust: as origin, dust forming red soil —terra rosa (see soil), as craftsman, topographist, island maker—all dunes, red soil / red clay / red-brown, above ancient frozen lime, as traveling dust: West Africa (see doors), as womb for seeds (see seeds)
B
Blessing: for whom? (see ships)
D
Doors of cedar: forest growing in the soil, forest of masts for sea (see ships) of no return: Senegal (Goree), Benin (Ouidah), Ghana (Elmina, Cape Coast) Sierra Leone (Bunce)
E
Edwin: a “first the ile have seen” (see ships; see till)
Elizabeth: “Long to reign over us”—all reincarnations (see ships)
L
Level: as third step of soil cultivation, a spade’s blade patting the back—soft loam to flat—a bed (see ships; see Edwin)
Limestone: as layer to grow through— pulverized by the till (see till), as ancient parent, buried surface soil —begat eolian, paleosoil, soil-lined hollows, fossils cemented to strata
N
Native: as finding a way without intrusion (see African dust; see soil), as edible, marketable, mortal (see seeds), as in defiance of
PPlough: as first step of soil cultivation as first step (see ships; see seeds) as settling, send sixty of your best persons —to turn the uppermost soil—to remove all rocks—(see limestone) —to clear the weeds—to mistake the sedge for weeds—to upturn them to brink
Seeds: to grow, in red (see African dust, see soil) to find a way home (see native; see African dust—airborne at speed), to climb over era—petrified rock— broken black fossils—lava smoothed to roads, to live, despite (see native)
Ships: to cultivate, to turn the earth (see plough, see till, see level), to find and people (see Plough; see Elizabeth; see Blessing; see Starre; see Edwin)
Soil: to be soft for crops, to stain with red—blood-like and iron rich, to thrive: tobacco, onion, lily, palmetto, arrowroot, orange, to be unto itself an industry
Starre: a convoy constellation, a hemisphere burning in the past (see ships) T
Till : as second step of soil cultivation, as first orders, as governor Moore (see Plough; see ships), as accumulation of acres— tillage, like pillage—ready ground for seeds
Soil Cultivation, an excerpt from An Oral History of Onions, Pt. 3, 2024 Digital Illustration
Yesha Townsend
Irrigation (part II), an excerpt from An Oral History of Onions, Pt. 3, 2024
Digital Collage
Yesha Townsend
AN ORAL HISTORY OF ONIONS PT.2 , YESHA TOWNSEND
1.
‘The first these isles have seen’
Colonisation——How a country is formed——How to steal and grow a people——crop support and irrigation——tourism as identity—— The woman as beginning, middle and everything——onions.
Bermudians begin with the onion. In 1616, the Edwin touched the shores of Bermuda carrying with it the cargo that would change the fabric of the island; the onion seeds, and two enslaved people. ‘A negroe and an Indian. The first these isles have ever seen.’1 Bermuda was in the midst of a chrysalis, having been largely forgotten, purposely avoided and cursed to the devils for the previous 90 years or so, and then the stumbling of the Sea Venture onto her reefs in 1609 set a course of colonial revision. This island, the second child borne in the New World, an untended garden that needed weeding, pruning and proper cultivation. The Edwin, serving as an early partner in Bermudian agribusiness, an arm’s length accomplice to the Atlantic Slave Trade, its own recklessly elaborate seed dispersal, a harsh assault to see if the crop will survive in new climate. By the 1630s the Black enslaved population of Bermuda was sizeable and expanding. Stateless, enslaved people taking root, and producing a harvest, that of the Crown and themselves. Partus sequitur ventrem, offspring following the womb, on new soil a Bermudian grows.
Gherdai Hassell, a daughter of the salt, the soil, and the sea, arrives at the seam of this colonial genesis and servitude. She doesn’t shy from this, her work leans in and intersects a confounding identity. She’s always knee-deep in the earth, always pulling up roots. Her collaged Alibii figures feature heavily layered eyes, as if built upon layer upon layer of the onion from which she springs. The Onion, her consistent recurrence and identifying principle of investigation, is a monument of Bermudian identity. Bermudians refer to themselves as onions, they feature heavily in local cuisine, in the naming of food establishments and for the official New Years Eve celebration, Bermudians venture to see the onion drop.
It has lasted, if even bereft of its origin status. It’s easy to remember a nickname, a trial to recall how you acquired it. For people who hardly have the opportunity to see themselves outside of tourism adverts or tongue in cheek conspiracy theories; Bermudians become a beach, a pair of shorts, a longtail on a coin, a triangle to be warned; Gherdai is a mirror, one that reflects and retells.
Gherdai creates as if to continue the ancestral work of minding the onion seeds. In the 19th century, Black women tended the crop of the Bermuda onion. They became scarecrows, they swatted with palmetto leaves, they were loud enough to challenge the birds. They were how the crop survived. In her ‘Mind the Onion’ series, the women depicted are jeweled, gilded, and hold an assured stare through eyes that are composite of layers woven together. Striking and unflinching, the type of woman you run into at a bar and lose grasp of your language and tongue in the midst of. The layers of the onion are blatant and confrontational - we see a woman who sees herself, who is seeing all of her selves in tandem. To centre the woman as feature rather than supplement, is a fundamental of this work. Here, they become historiography - their bodies authentic, sourced and wrought of diasporic narrative. They are the story, and this work is academic in function. Biologically, future itself passes through the channel of the woman, it’s only fitting that she serves as the filtered lens through which we observe life.
Consulting Nellie Musson’s 1979 Mind the Onion Seed, Gherdai continues this conversation. Nellie put women at the forefront of her historical evaluation. Almost every chapter is anchored by the stories of Black Bermudian women, a device emulated and reconfigured with Gherdai’s works. It’s as if these two pieces of Bermudian art, separated by decades and distance, are entrenched in an act of adulatory call and response. The fact that this seminal piece of Bermudian literature - much like many of the texts in the Bermudian literary canon, is out of print and scarcely found emphasises the delicacy of this action. To obtain a copy of Mind the Onion Seed, on-island or otherwise is to strike proverbial gold, that is to say that Gherdai relies on scanned pages sent in chapter intervals, from various sources who happen to own a copy, or whose proximity to one allows them time enough to secure a few minutes of immediate
transcription. This is of course indicative of the whence she came, and creates to - a culture whose pieces of history is scattered, under-printed, or out-of-reach. Bermudians have trouble seeing themselves because even the most eponymous of works is slipping out of living memory and grasp. If Gherdai is doing anything it’s that of horticulturist, her art tirelessly investigating Caribbean and Bermudian archives, history and existence. This is how a people continue to remake themselves. ‘Used in its context, the phrase “mind the onion seed”, is an idiom arising out of slavery times, meaning “take care of”, “watch over”, “preserve”, the Bermuda onion—one of Bermuda’s primary exports that is deeply rooted in the Black woman’s heritage.’2
Gherdai is how the crop survives.
Our houses catch water
Watercolour and genealogy——physiology of a waterbody——all 60% of you——’Early Blacks were in Bermuda because of their skills. They were expert divers…’3 —— How to build a Bermuda home——pray for rain.
In Gherdai’s ‘Onion Spawn’ series, the Alibii women meet water and subsequently, movement. These pieces, more abstractions than earlier versions of the Alibii, speak to the relative parts of identity and selfdom - here the face is splintered to its fragmented parts rather than present as a whole. Lips, jawline, a painted finger exist among saturated colour. The inclusion of the watercolour paint allows the colours to run, in the crystalised, splintered way of spreading from the source. Like veins, like a tree, like the generational line of a family. At times the full pieces themselves appear as onion seed, as bulb, flower and stubborn roots, collaged with faded archival images of women, and the ever present layered eye. The Alibii resides in the midst of what was, and what is. It is a consideration of the concurrence of time and ancestry, how to be everything at once, how the past happens within you - a bloodline, and thereby, a future. By having water guide these pieces, Gherdai confronts
the immaculate memory that water carries with it.
When we talk of water in Bermudian history we’re talking of seafaring, shipbuilding, fishcatching, channel-navigating pilots. Enslaved men who would ferry a ship through a slolam of reefs only to have the passage named by the commander of the ship.4 Water as in vexed, tempestuous, unruly; as in the clouds in shark oil vials, as in white caps before a storm. Bermudians are people of the water. Bermuda homes even, built with water collection in mind. A reservoir tank sits usually beneath or beside the house foundation, and via the stepped roofs and gutter, funnels rainwater into the concrete tank after a shower. Without streams, mountains or other freshwater supply, Bermudians rely on the weather for water. A heavy downpour is known as tank rain. Given the abundance it usually bestows upon the reservoir.
In her 2021 installation Traces and Past Times, Gherdai used collage, sculpture and flagging tape to depict lineage and origins. The tape itself, lined above in shades of blue, was reminiscent of caustics in the water, the surface light reaching the bottom in pattern. The shadows producing refracted lines, over the artwork beneath, almost like those of a genealogical tree. These too, were roots.
3.
‘Why Onions Make us Cry’5
Where ya to? Who’s ya people? What’s for supper?——Put onion in everything——Diaspora means moving——to go back home——Recipe as in heirloom, birthmark, ancestral trait.
The following is a recipe for onion soup, butter sauce with onions, codfishcakes with grated onion in the mix, macaroni & cheese with chopped and softened onions, mussel soup with Bermuda onion and saffron, pickled onions, deviled eggs with onions, onion & chive dip, Bermuda fish chowder with onions, onion rings, onion bread (from MR Onions), onion relish, chow chow, onion marmalade, caramelized onions, onion and
cucumber salad. Don’t forget to add onions to: guacamole, potato salad, egg salad, coleslaw, chef’s salad, chicken salad, peas & rice, shadeesh & potatoes, scalloped potatoes, fried fish, fish sandwiches.
Gherdai undertakes the work creating of and within the diaspora. Her artwork takes that inquisitive likeness of a child asking about family stories and recreates them within the contextual challenges of the world. All pieces are surmising, questions, wonderings and hopes. She creates a reimagining of the Bermudian experience all while acknowledging and highlighting the — at-times, inaccessible past. She is what it means, to hear your own accent, long from your shore. An onion, peeled by the layers, to flinch and tears, a weeping reflex to seeing itself and itself and itself, and utterly gobsmacked at the reflection staring back.
yesha townsend, 2023
1 Lefroy, J H, John Smith, and Nathaniel Boteler. The Historye of the Bermudaes or Summer Islands, 1882.
2 Musson, Nellie E. Mind the Onion Seed, 1979.
3 Packwood, Cyril Outerbridge. Chained on the Rock, 1975.
4 Packwood, Cyril Outerbridge. Chained on the Rock, 1975.
5 Valentine, Nancy. All About Bermuda Onions, 1991.
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NOTES
On the agricultural cycle:
‒ Soil Cultivation is about optimising the soil for healthier crops or plants. It involves loosening and turning the soil. There are usually three stages to soil cultivation: Ploughing which includes clearing rocks, weeds, debris. Using a garden hoe, spade or shovel or tractor, which in agriculture the act of digging is called ‘cultivation.’ The next step is tilling, which involves pulverising clods of earth and mixing them into the soil. Tilling should be performed a few days before seedlings are transplanted, and is intended to make the soil soft and friable in order to maximize the growth of your crop. The last step is leveling, which prevents water stagnation due to depressions or height differences. You can level soil by patting the back of the spade’s blade onto the surface until it’s firm and flat.
‒ Sowing is the planting of seeds at regular intervals in general rows. Depth and distance needs to be measured to ensure enough space for the crop to grow. Soil should be healthy. An area that has seeds planted in it is known as ‘sown.
‒ Irrigation is applying controlled amounts of water to land. There is surface irrigation, sprinkler irrigation, micro-irrigation, drip irrigation and sub-irrigation. The water used can be ground water or surface water or some other non conventional water source. Irrigation is supplementary to rainfall.
‒ Fertilisation is the process of adding additional plant nutrition to the soil. Fertilisation is supplementing the existing soil with additional, needed nutrients. Fertilising wisely increases yield, quality and profits. There are three basic ways to replenish the nutrients removed from the soil. One way is to recycle nutrients, mainly by way of animal waste; another way to replenish soils is to obtain and apply fertilizer; and the third way is through microbial action such as nitrogen fixation.
‒ Protection is managing threats to crop health. This could include pest management strategies, including the use of biocontrol agents and crop rotation to help manage pests and diseases with minimal ecological impact. This step is vital to safeguard crop yields and quality.
NOTES
‒ Harvesting is the act of collecting plants for food (fruits, vegetables and root crops) when mature, at the time they are ready for immediate consumption, sale or storage.
‒ Storing is the art of keeping the quality of agricultural materials and preventing them from deterioration for specific periods of time, beyond their normal shelf life. Fresh produce are living organisms — and there is a continuation of the life process after harvest. Unprocessed harvests have changes such as: water loss, conversion of starches to sugars, conversion of sugars to starches, flavour changes, toughening, vitamin gain or loss, sprouting, or decay. Some changes result in quality deterioration; others improve quality in those vegetables that complete ripening after harvest.
On land expropriation and dispossession:
‒ According to the Commission of Inquiry into Historic Losses of Land in Bermuda (2021), in the early 20th century, Tucker’s Town in Bermuda underwent a major transformation. Originally inhabited by a close-knit community of predominantly Black Bermudians, this enclave was expropriated for public use, creating a resort and leisure property which catered to the wealthy; both visitors and residents alike. Tucker’s Town was just one of the sites that the Commission investigated.
SPECIAL
THANKS from the artist,
Gherdai Hassell
Thank you to my official unofficial studio assistant, Teonnae Hassell whose hands and energies are deeply embedded in this work, to Yesha for making magic together, and to Essence for understanding the assignment. To Ishanni for being a wonderful model. To Sharon Muhammad whose intergenerational guidance and conversation is deeply appreciated. To Jasmine for allowing me space to trust your visionary creative direction. To Risa and the Masterworks Team for allowing me the platform and the opportunity to be the first contemporary Bermudian artist to have a major exhibition in the Butterfield Gallery. What an honour. And to the Anonymous Donors whose generous gift made this exhibition possible, thank you.
ARTIST DETAILS
Gherdai Hassell
Yesha Townsend
Essence Aikman
Hana Bushara
www.gherdaihassell.com, @hassell_free www.stillvexed.com, @ameliapureheart_ www.essenceaikman.com, @essenceaikman @hanabusharamusic
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
NOT ALL HAS TO BE AS IT WAS, is on view from Friday, September 27, 2024 until February 22, 2025. The exhibition is curated by Masterworks’ Museum and Gallery Exhibitions Officer, Jasmine Lee. Support for this exhibition is graciously provided by Anonymous Donors.
@masterworksmuseum
@masterworksmuseum
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