‘Jeffery Forbes adjusts the flame’
‘Shine your Bright Light’ series at group show ‘A Burning for Home’ at The D’Aguilar Gallery, Nassau, September 1st, 2020
Experiencing Hurricane Dorian as it made landfall on Elbow Cay, Abaco on September 1st, 2019, made me reassess what this island community of which I’d been part of for almost 15 years, and it’s prominent feature - the Elbow Reef Lighthouse - meant to me.
‘Fake Plastic Trees’ conceptual model
‘Fake Plastic Trees’ at The 8th National Exhibition (NE8), NAGB, Nassau 2018
’Many small and long-established communities throughout the world are being threatened by changes which are undercutting their basic reasons for existing as a viable community in the sense defined above. The great paradox of tourist-oriented communities in particular is that their very success in attracting tourists leads to the degradation of the qualities which attracted the tourists in the first place.’ From David H Scott ‘Some Notes on the Future of Hope Town’ 1979
‘Hope Town Strong’
Evolution of ‘Fake Plastic Trees’ 2019
Throughout the aftermath of the storm itself and the clean up that followed, it was apparent that the former glimpse of life presented by ‘Fake Plastic Trees’ no longer existed. It was obliterated into a precarious future. Many homes that once provided accommodation for tourists eager to experience island life were damaged or destroyed, while the ones still habitable became shelters for the survivors - some even during the storm as they fled their own homes that blew apart around them.