Anina Major, The Eye, 2021, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, gift of Kelly and Steve McLeod through the 2022 Decorative Arts and Design Acquisitions Committee (DA2), image courtesy of Shoshana Wayne Gallery and the artist
September 20, 2022
By Wendy Kaplan, Rosie Mills, Staci Steinberger, and Bobbye Tigerman
Bahamian artist Anina Major explores themes of identity, migration, and craft in her beautifully woven ceramic sculptures. Major’s grandmother taught her how to braid straw baskets when the artist was a child. Though often derided as women’s craft made for tourists, plaited straw objects have a centuries-long history that originated among the island’s Indigenous and enslaved West African populations. Major’s Plait series honors this tradition by recreating the technique in the enduring medium of clay. As she said in an interview: “The objects my grandmother made will deteriorate. They are made from the tree palms. There’s something beautiful about me taking that practice and putting it into an object that will exist as some kind of evidence that we were here.” The open, woven form of The Eye evokes a tropical storm, suggesting both the strength and fragility of the artist’s native country.
