Chandra Frank on Blue Curry
Tourism as social affliction—it’s a proposition that Bahamian artist Blue Curry explores through a white wall and twelve showerheads with colorful bathing suits hanging from them. Curry, who is based in London, takes everyday scenarios from tourist culture and places them into a contemporary art space. While the twelve bathing suits are presented as one installation, Curry stresses that each has its own sculptural quality. These qualities are pronounced through focusing on the materials; a slight fold might highlight the frills and motives of the swimsuit. In the presentation of the bathing suits in a conceptual arts space, Curry invites viewers to think beyond the garment and to start imagining its sculptural value. Initially, Curry had envisioned a slow drip of water coming from the swimsuits, but in my conversation with him, it quickly became clear that he tends to stay away from inserting elements that might come across as too staged or performed.1 The showerheads are thus hung without a water drip. For Curry, who grew up in The Bahamas, the bathing suits remind him of his childhood; his mother’s or sister’s dripping swimsuit, after a visit to the beach. The bathing suits in this installation, carefully selected by Curry and sourced from different shops in London during the sales, are used in reference of the dominance of tourist culture in The Bahamas and in response to the overarching theme of social affliction of this exhibition. In this sense, the bathing suits are used as a means to explore how the visual lives of social affliction are bound up within tourist culture