The second influence is my grandfather’s cousin, Eric Minns, who was a famous calypso singer and author. His iconic calypso music was playing in the exhibition as people explored the show. In his book, Island Boy, he wrote about the diasporic travel of Bahamian migrants to Toronto. This novel and his records were always at arm’s reach in my house, where I would stare at the images and imagine a false tropical paradise far away. I think this diasporic visual lens is a thread throughout the work.

Lastly, my grandfather wrote copious amounts of letters back and would carefully save the stamps and bring them on my visits as small souvenirs of the island. I would carefully arrange them in my childhood scrapbooks. Later, after he left my house, I would stare at these tiny iconographic images of flamingos, palm trees, pineapples, coconuts, fish, and shells, and transport myself to this imagined hot and beautiful island. These symbolic icons came up again in my compositional choices as I worked through the studio research.