Tavares Strachan is an artist whose interests, references, and approaches to making stretch so broadly, it’s not surprising that one of his more well-known works is an encyclopedia. Created in 2018, the 2,400-page volume contains 15,000 entries on individuals, events, places, and more that are critical to understanding our shared history, and yet were omitted from the Encyclopedia Britannica. This inverse book-cum-sculpture is one of many pieces within Strachan’s oeuvre that question the narratives we collectively disseminate.
Born in Nassau, the Bahamian artist is one of the leading conceptual artists working today, and his first monograph, out this month from Phaidon, peers into decades of his expansive practice.
While much of Strachan’s work considers colonialism and historical erasure, the artist is deeply rooted in the present and future. Our changing climate and the push for space exploration figure prominently and even sparked the scientific research platform, Bahamas Aerospace and Sea Exploration Center (BASEC), which Strachan founded in 2018. That project launched a 3U satellite into space for a three-year orbit around the sun that same year, which shared the story of Robert Henry Lawrence Jr., the first African-American astronaut within any national space program.
The book’s release coincides with Strachan’s exhibition The Day Tomorrow Began at The Pizzuti, part of the Columbus Museum of Art in Ohio, which runs through January 3. In true Strachan fashion, creating the monograph goes beyond simply gathering the various projects and shows within his practice. “When you make a book, you are participating in this very long historic lineage of bookmaking and sharing information,” he says, adding that there’s a strong spiritual connection between presenting work in person and on the page.
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