The decision to voluntarily establish a home contrary to the location in which Major was born and raised (The Bahamas) motivates her to investigate the relationship between self and place. In search of a place to articulate the essence of her practice, the artist returns to the inspirational source of her work—the straw market, an actual place that possesses metaphorical meanings, to further explore her own migration and the emotional complexities of transactional relationships between people and places. At its juncture a sense of belonging is generated from a combination of characteristics, core values and deep-rooted histories that are often undervalued in the context of tourism.
In the desire to fabricate her own terms of cultural integrity and its defining influence, viewers experience sculptural works that act as present-day manifestations of the traditional weaving technique known as plait, taught to Major by her grandmother. Beach balls and straw bags collide into forms that through the material transformation of clay, exemplify the power of legacy building through making. And vintage postcards provide composition for the performative video work, Heavy is the Head as an alternate narrative to the utopian landscapes promoted.
As a counteraction to culture erasure, the work is a continued celebration and reclamation of the ideas behind ‘women’s work’, specifically regarding expressions of identity and imagination. Layering references to post-colonial themes, cultural commodification, feminism and migrational experiences, the abstract nature of the work has the capacity to exist in both traditional and contemporary realms.
Anina Major was born in Nassau, Bahamas. She lives and works in New York. Major received an MFA in ceramics from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Providence, RI, and a BS in graphic design from Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA. She has exhibited in museums and galleries internationally, including Mass MoCA, North Adams, MA; New Museum, New York, NY; National Gallery of The Bahamas, Nassau, Bahamas; and DeCordova Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA. Major’s work can be found in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the National Gallery of The Bahamas, Nassau, Bahamas; the RISD Museum, Providence, RI; and Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, CA.
