Gherdai Hassell at the 2022 Bermuda Biennial

Gherdai Hassell
“Exhale”

Bermuda National Gallery

b. 1991, Bermudian

Transparent silk fabric and wooden rod

2022

48 x 48 in.

Gherdai Hassell is a Bermudian born, China trained multidisciplinary contemporary artist, writer and storyteller based in Manchester, UK. Her work investigates memory and nostalgia to create unexpected narratives surrounding identity. She uses collage to thread and weave histories, and tales of transformation passed down through family lineages. 

Her work typically centers around female bodies, simultaneously existing within realms of past, present and future. Diasporic pasts become re-informed by Black futures, where the resulting present is experienced as a living “Artifacts”, an act toward Afrofuturism. 

Hassell’s work is an exploration of identity as an exploration through a study of materials and social practice. The work suggests that identity should be self-determined, understood and contextualized through connection with others. Her multimedia work reimagines relationships with the body as avatar, social space and the invisible world. 

Her work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions and biennials in Bermuda, USA, UK, Nigeria, Cuba and China. She is currently an MFA candidate at the China Academy of Art.