The Image Factory Art Foundation is pushing the envelope again with a provocative new exhibit by British photographer Boyarde Messenger.
It is the first solo show in Belize for the artist who resides in Placencia for part of the year Now, we warn you, her show is named "Bums, Nudes, Night Prowls and Washing Line Landscapes," and the content may not be suitable for the squeamish, but it is interesting. Jim McFadzean found out why:….
Jim McFadzean Reporting
Fantasy and Narrative, that's how 30 year old British artist Boyarde Messenger prefers to describe her 59 piece artwork collection of Bums, Nudes, Night Prowls and Washing Line Landscapes.
Boyarde Messenger- artist
"When you get to know me perhaps when you look around the exhibition and you take your time you will see that they all somehow come under one category which is fantasy and narrative, I am trying to evoke the feeling I am trying to evoke some
kind of thought process, and like everybody is like when you're looking at art, but all so because I am very much a fantasist, I very much believe in creating inspiration. I am very much into the idea of a parallel world where your mind can escape for ten minutes every day and if I can achieve that and create a story in each image that look at then i have active what i have been wanted to do."
Messenger who was trained in photography at Wimbledon School of Art, started out in the unconventional world of body painting right here in Belize. Troubled with her own insecurities as a female, Messenger began to search for 'her own inner Goddess' as she describes it, by exploring photographs of the female form. That search led to her first experimentation with an inexperienced, emotionally insecure model, 'a village girl from Placencia'.
Boyarde Messenger- Artist
"The journey started in England and then I discovered Belize just by mishap coming to photograph a friend's wedding in January 2007 and I discovered this whole new world of inspiration color lights the people the free spirit, everything, and then it developed by a local girl in village of Placencia, she saw my work on my website in England and she asked me if I would photograph her, she had no confidence her posture was awful she just clearly didn't believe in herself, but I saw this beautiful girl who really needed to have her inner goddess to be brought out and if it wasn't for her the journey might not have started over here."
Her collection spans four years of activity, and is based almost entirely in Belize. She views her work as sensual and playful, leaving the interpretation to the viewer:
Jim McFadzean
"Is it the body shape structure of the body that your painting on that attracts the viewer? Or is it the painting?"
Boyarde Messenger
"I am not sure, probably both I think because I know visually your using the female form which everybody loves the female form, who cannot love the female form it's a beautiful curvaceous, it can be the most beautiful object and it can create, evoke a lot of feeling but at the same time the painting that i have put on it is what makes it more abstract and less sexual and less about a naked body, so what I am painting on it, is creating the color the vibrancy an emotion an ambiance so together…"
Messenger's work has exhibited in over 20 group exhibitions in London, Paris, New York and Miami as well as four solo exhibitions.
The exhibit opens tomorrow night, and is on view until February 28th, 2011.
