Bahamas (The)

John Beadle and Lavar Munroe, deeply grounded in visual and social practices of the Bahamas and the broader African diaspora, highlight themes of crossing, commemoration and collaboration. Beadle, who died in 2024, worked as part of a community of makers who collaboratively create costumes for the biennial Junkanoo masquerade, a centuries- old tradition. Junkanoo often formed the DNA of Beadle’s studio art, particularly in his use of discarded materials like cardboard, the typically concealed and embellished inner structure of Junkanoo costumes.

Munroe has similarly worked at the intersection of Junkanoo, as a member of a Junkanoo group, and contemporary art. He has created elaborate sculptures made from strips of Junkanoo costumes that had been abandoned after performance in the biennial parade. Beadle and Munroe share a focus on the hidden, the discarded, the thrown away and the undervalued – “the minor notes” – in society: the migrant, the day labourer, the homeless. The publication also explores the idea of “posthumous collaboration”, understood as collaborating with and commemorating the deceased through the material traces of their art and labour.