You Belong Here
Tavares Strachan
‘Why do we have to affirm ‘belonging'? Why do we need to convince people of who and where we are? I might not belong. You might not belong. Everything might not fit together nicely. Some things are unmappable.’
- Tavares Strachan
In this visually impactful work, Tavares Strachan offers a seemingly concrete and affirmative declaration that, upon closer reflection, is abstract and fluid. Combining the visual aesthetics of storefront signage with the linguistic pleasantries of marketing and advertising, the work explores the cogent and relatable human need to belong to a place and a community, while simultaneously questioning the very notion of belonging itself.
Depending on the intonation, the context, and the location in which the installation appears, the statement takes on different shades of meaning. On the one hand, it can be read as a comforting affirmation, an inclusive, welcoming gesture, an assertion of a fundamental right shared by all. On the other hand, as curator and writer Thomas Sutton points out, “if you have to be told that ‘you belong here’ – what does that raise?” In other words, the phrase can shift from invitation to injunction, subtly implying that one does not naturally belong, that belonging is conditional, or that certain bodies are more readily accepted than others.
In sum, You Belong Here stands as an anthem for our political and cultural moment: a luminous, open-ended provocation that asks us not only whether we belong, but why, how, and who gets to decide.
2013 – Blue neon, two transformers, 57.15cm height, 144.78cm length, 0.889cm width, Edition #9.
Courtesy the artist and Burger Collection.
Tavares Strachan
°1979, Nassau, Bahamas
Tavares Strachan is a contemporary conceptual artist whose practice activates the intersections of art, science, and politics, offering uniquely synthesized points of view on the cultural dynamics of scientific knowledge. Aeronautics, astronomy, deep-sea exploration, and extreme climatology are but some of the thematic arenas out of which Strachan creates monumental allegories that tell of cultural displacement, human aspiration, and mortal limitation. Themes of invisibility, displacement, and loss are central to his work, which questions historically canonized narratives that marginalize or obscure others. Strachan’s work has been featured in numerous solo exhibitions at a.o. Prospect 3. Biennial, New Orleans; Biennale de Lyon, Lyon; The Bahamas National Pavilion 55th Venice Biennale, Venice; Undisclosed Exhibition, New York; MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge; Hayward Gallery, London; Kunsthalle Mannheim; and Los Angeles County Museum of Art. He has been the recipient of numerous awards including most recently the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation fellowship (2022), 2019-20 Artist in Residence at the Getty Research Institute, 2018 Frontier Art Prize, and the Allen Institute’s inaugural artist-in-residence in 2018. Strachan received a BFA in Glass from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2003 and an MFA in Sculpture from Yale University in 2006. He draws on both the resources and community of his birthplace, dividing his time between his studio in New York and Nassau, where he has established an art studio and scientific research platform B.A.S.E.C. (Bahamas Aerospace and Sea Exploration Center) and OKU, a not-for-profit community project encompassing an artist residency and exhibition spaces, a scholarship scheme, and after-school creative programs. He is represented by Marian Goodman Gallery.
Photo: Tavares Strachan © Kevin Claiborne