Solo Exhibition

Bermuda National Gallery 

The title of the exhibition, I Am Because You Are, is a reference to the African proverb, “Ubuntu.” The saying, which speaks to our shared humanity, is taken from the Zulu phrase, “Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu” which directly translates as: “a person is a person through other people.” In scrutinizing her personal history, Hassell weaves an imagined narrative of Bermuda and its people, merging past, present, and future.

 

In I Am Because You Are, Gherdai Hassell creates a deliberate, living relationship with historic materials in order to give a voice to those who were silenced. In so doing, she reminds us that “Black people as the descendants of the slave trade exist more as a human accomplishment than the remains of human destruction.”

This exhibition is sponsored by the Department of Culture with support from the Bermuda Arts Council and the Centennial Bermuda Foundation.