Specimen

When Hurricane Dorian hit The Bahamas in September 2019, it took with it so many lives; literal ones, realities, stories, and history as it uprooted graves, washed away archives and destroyed people’s most cherished possessions. It is in the wake of this destruction that we as a people were forced to embrace a new narrative. For so many of us, this hurricane marks a turning point in our lives, forcing us to categorize memories within two boxes, those “before” and those “after” Dorian.

As our personal narratives have been changed, those thrust upon us have been overhauled as well. Since the storm, International visitors no longer engaged in casual banter and pleasantries. These have been replaced with concerned questions, well-meaning pity, and in rare cases, ignorant condescension. There has also undeniably been national shift in the way we view and address those who were directly effected by the storm. Grand Bahamians and Abaconians are no longer addressed as such, but are now referred to as “victims” and “survivors”. This storm has firmly planted us in the position as “other”, and those that were in its direct path roots grow even deeper in this soil.

A “Specimen”, can be defined as “something shown or examined as an example; a typical example” or “a particular or peculiar kind of person”. Specimen, examines how catastrophic events and personal traumas redefine an identity. An individual is altered within themselves (psychologically and physiologically) as well as externally through a newly established and single-minded perception. In the work, I grotesquely modify old family photographs, substituting select elements with imagery of decay and environmental unrest, as a way to illustrate the lasting transformative effects this trauma has personal stories and history.