CIFF x Tavares Strachan Exhibition – Northwind Trilogy
Represented By OBCM.
Kristian W. Andersen, Director of NorthModern recently welcomed the third edition of The Northwind Trilogy, curated by Neville Wakefield. They presented B.A.S.E.C., a new experimental work by acclaimed Bahamian-born artist Tavares Strachan as a Special Project at CIFF 2019 (Jan 30-Feb 1, 2019).
CIFF x Tavares Strachan Exhibition – Northwind Trilogy
[portfolio_slideshow id=73528 align=center width=699 click=advance thumbnailsize=40 showcaps=false]
An immersive exhibition space at CIFF will feature the new B.A.S.E.C. collection of six unique bomber jackets, alongside video installations and printed materials, sculptural and neon works, and photographs, that document the artist’s training as a cosmonaut, the making of the jackets in the Bahamas, and examine synergies between art, fashion, community and exploration. The presentation in Copenhagen at CIFF completes a trilogy of events, which unveiled Strachan’s B.A.S.E.C. in Miami during Art Basel Miami Beach in December, and previewed the collection in Paris during Men’s Fashion Week earlier this month.
The term B.A.S.E.C. stands for Bahamas Air and Sea Exploration Center – an agency, which Strachan created “ to get the Bahamas involved in the global exploration conversation.” B.A.S.E.C.’s stated ambitions and official government and corporate logo, a blue globe with an archipelago of black stars on a yellow and gold background, serve as the Bahamas version of NASA.
CIFF x Tavares Strachan Exhibition – Northwind Trilogy
[portfolio_slideshow id=73602 align=center width=699 click=advance thumbnailsize=40 showcaps=false]
“Tavares’s new project B.A.S.E.C. aligns perfectly with our vision and commitment to art, fashion and the future of our city,” said NorthModern Director Kristian W. Andersen.
“In December of 2016, my mother and I had a conversation about making, and how much this process can provide enrichment and a livelihood to young people,” said Strachan. “During this time I was working on the story of B.A.S.E.C. and designing and making the jackets became part of the research and prototyping. We now have a line of B.A.S.E.C. bomber jackets that are 100% made in the Bahamas by my mother, Ella Strachan. A part of our master plan has to do with inspiring young women to make it on their own through these skills and projects”. The resulting B.A.S.E.C. Bomber Collection consists of six jackets, each with its unique set of patches based on past conducted missions. Proceeds from the jackets will go into the development of teaching programs for women led by the artist’s mother Ella Strachan.
Tavares Strachan
Strachan was born in 1979 in Nassau, Bahamas, and currently lives and works between New York City and Nassau, Bahamas. He received a BFA in Glass from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2003 and an MFA in Sculpture from Yale University in 2006. Strachan’s multi-media installations investigate science, technology, mythology, history, and exploration, and have included collaborations with numerous organizations and institutions across the disciplines.
In addition, Strachan’s exhibition Invisibles is now on view at Regen Projects in Los Angeles, California through December 22, 2018. Concurently, he is working on a project in collaboration with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and SpaceX as the result of a 2014 LACMA Art+Technology Lab artist grant. Strachan’s neon work is also currently on the facades of two important museums in Beaux Arts structures; The Baltimore Museum of Art and The Carnegie Museum of Art. The Carnegie project led Strachan to be this year’s recipient of the prestigious Frontier Prize.
Strachan’s work has been shown in numerous solo exhibitions You Belong Here, Prospect.3 Biennial, New Orleans; The Immeasurable Daydream, Biennale de Lyon, Lyon, Seen/Unseen, Undisclosed Exhibition, New York; Orthostatic Tolerance: It Might Not Be Such a Bad Idea if I Never Went Home Again, MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge; Orthostatic Tolerance: Launching into an Infinite Distance, Grand Arts, Kansas City; and You Can Do Whatever You Like (Orthostatic Tolerance Project), Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; and The Difference Between What We Have and What We Want at Albury Sayle Primary School, Nassau, The Bahamas (2006). In 2013, Strachan represented the Bahamas in the nation’s inaugural pavilion at the 55th International Venice Biennale with Polar Eclipse. He participated in the inaugural edition of Desert X in 2017 with a site-specific installation titled I AM.
Neville Wakefield
Neville Wakefield records, documents and shapes the culture he lives in. As a creative director, writer, curator and commentator on contemporary art and culture, he combines objects, images and action and thought into provocative syntheses. He is the co-founder of Destricted, a series of films that address the issue of sexuality in art, has served as creative director for Tar magazine, Playboy’s special projects / A-Z edition as well as frequently collaborating with brands including Cartier, Nike and Supreme for whom he commissions the much coveted artists decks. As senior curatorial advisor for PS1 MoMA and curator of Frieze Projects he gained a reputation for challenging the conditions that shape art in both commercial and non-commercial contexts. He has worked extensively with institutions both here and abroad including the Schaulager Switzerland where he curated the ground-breaking Matthew Barney retrospective: ‘Prayer Sheet with the Wound and the Nail.’ His interest in the behavior of art outside of institutional walls has led him to co-found Elevation1049 a site-specific biennial in Gstaad, Switzerland currently in its third edition. His role as artistic director of Desert X has been instrumental in shaping the recurring exhibition that attracted over 200,000 visitors to the Coachella Valley in Southern California for its first edition in 2017 and will open its second edition at sites across the California desert on February 9-April 21,2019. Code Art Fair and CIFF honored Wakefield at the 2017 edition of Northwind in Los Angeles in recognition of his visionary work as a writer and curator navigating seamlessly and without traditional barriers between the disciplines of art, fashion and design.
NorthModern
NorthModern is a catalytic, community company connecting art, sport, fashion and urban development. It reimagines Copenhagen’s rich design heritage with modernist principles of light and open space to activate a new approach to casual and responsible living.
CIFF
Copenhagen International Fashion Fair is the largest and longest-running fashion fair in Europe. Over the past five years, CIFF has become a major bi-annual destination for the international fashion industry. Along the way, it has reinvented the trade show concept and earned the reputation for being one of Europe’s most dynamic and innovative sales platform. Under the direction of Kristian W. Andersen, CIFF has grown from regional trade fair to international fashion hub and showcase for the industry’s most directional and forwardthinking brands. Through a unique blend of curation, creative collaborations and an unfailing eye for spotting and nurturing emerging design talent, Mr. Andersen has transformed CIFF into a beacon for the design industry.
Code Art Fair
Established in 2016, Code Art Fair is Europe’s newest and most ambitious international contemporary art fair. Based in Copenhagen, one of the world’s most vibrant and exciting capitals, its approach is fresh and inclusive with leading galleries and collectors from around the world taking part. Code’s 2019 edition (August 29-September 1, 2019) will include a new group of internationally renowned curators and an expanded advisory committee. Copenhagen has a long tradition of nurturing and promoting creativity in all its forms. Code Art Fair, one of the newest and most ambitious platforms for contemporary art and culture, and CIFF continue this legacy by uniting art, fashion, sport and community as part of an innovative, culture-driven urban development plan that aims to reinforce Copenhagen as a unique and forward-thinking, cultural destination
##
With love,
FWO
