Gherdai Hassell Wins Best of Bermuda Visual Artist Award 2022

Gherdai Hassell, Artist

via the Bermudian Magazine

When The Bermudian last sat down with Gherdai Hassell, she was enjoying the success of her first solo show, I AM Because You Are, at the Bermuda National Gallery. A year later, she’s establishing herself as a household name.

“Last year was the most rewarding year of my life to date,” she gleams. “I have been really zoned in on making, I think that’s what made the difference [for me] in 2021.” As an MFA in Contemporary Art degree holder from the China Academy of Art, Hassell worked to hone her creative process.

“Working on my thesis has really helped me to centre and focus my subject matter and my why.”

“The biggest change for me has been the need to develop language around my work. Before I used to make work intuitively, but now my process involves significantly more research, reading and writing.” Hassell’s highly cerebral collage work instantly enthralls with its whimsy, but behind its allure are deeply personal and historical messages that surpass the boundaries of art as narrative. Hassell tactfully weaves written word into her projects, embodying the role of artist and storyteller in one. “My role as an artist is influenced by the fact that I love telling stories – untold ones and creating new ones,” she says. “Writing has elevated my work. It has allowed me to make sense of what it is I’m trying to say visually. Viewers will always have their own interpretation of what something means to them. But I think it’s important for me as the artist to first state what my intention is with written language so that other people aren’t writing my story.”

Looking forward to the year ahead, Hassell says she plans “to return to the idea of studio as laboratory.” Participating in three biennials in 2022: the Bermuda Biennial at the Bermuda National Gallery, the Havana Biennial and the Bamako Encounters  African Biennial of Photography in Mali, Hassell is also taking on two artist residencies, a few exhibitions, and the illustration of a children’s book.

For artists hoping to reap the same level of success as she, Hassell encourages them to know their worth. “Your desire to be an artist is a legitimate, valuable and honest way to make a living,” she says. “It takes courage to take a path where the journey isn’t paved out. Making a living as an artist requires dedication, reinvention, creativity, wit and grit.”

Photos by Tanya Weekes