Inspired by the landscapes found in the Masterworks Collection, NOT ALL HAS TO BE AS IT WAS sought to conceptually and materially reimagine the painted landscape. Presenting her ‘Alibii’ figures as ‘Land Lords,’ caretakers of the land and guardians of the ‘Onion Seed,’ inspired by Nellie Musson, atop a landscape of collaged archival images, historical land documents and maps, Hassell layers the fabric of the past with visions of a newly imagined present.
A landscape anew, NOT ALL HAS TO BE AS IT WAS offers an alternative Bermuda landscape, and imagines who the ‘Lords’ of our land could have been.The core exhibition, featured in the Butterfield Gallery, included a new commission, a series of 9 paintings by Hassell, alongside selected works from the Permanent Collection. Also on display were Hassell’s collaboration with Essence Aikman, a short-film entitled Finding Soft Ground (directed by Aikman, and produced by Hassell) and Holy Ground, the collaboration between Hassell and Yesha Townsend, featured in the Mezzanine Gallery, which included a participatory installation.
