Strachan became the first Bahamian to visit the North Pole to understand the harsh conditions that in 1909 greeted Matthew Henson \u2014 the Black explorer who accompanied Cmdr. Robert Peary on polar expeditions and was likely the first human to ever stand on top of the world<\/a>. His feat went unacknowledged for years because he was Black.<\/p>\n This piece from Tavares Strachan\u2019s \u201cInner Elder\u201d series depicts a crowned Nina Simone as the Queen of Sheba. <\/p>\n (Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n In another project, Strachan honored America\u2019s first Black astronaut, Robert Henry Lawrence Jr.<\/a> He died in a plane crash while training a test pilot in 1968 before he could take part in any space mission. So Strachan sent a replica of an artwork inspired by Lawrence into orbit on a SpaceX rocket. <\/p>\n Now a collection of Strachan\u2019s work is on view at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for his first museum show in the city<\/a>, titled \u201cThe Day Tomorrow Began.\u201d<\/p>\n The multisensory exhibition showcases Strachan\u2019s ability to translate his lifelong passion for scientific inquiry and boundary-pushing adventures into pieces that make you question everything you thought you understood about human progress \u2014 all while forcing you to see how Black achievements so easily get written out of the history books.<\/p>\n \u201cThe pieces of this particular exhibition that I think may hit people are when they start making connections on their own \u2014 the synapses start to fire,\u201d the 45-year-old artist said during a recent tour of his show. \u201cYou start to tie in, for example, the relationships between this polar explorer Matthew Henson and Robert Henry Lawrence. And then you start to think about the earlier explorers who left the African continent and this pioneering spirit that is a part of what it means to be African that is oftentimes not articulated or discussed.\u201d<\/p>\n On view until March 29, \u201cThe Day Tomorrow Begins\u201d is both whimsical and serious. Live performances rooted in the Black experience, and scripted by Strachan, take place among museum visitors, obliterating the divide between art and spectator.<\/p>\n There is a lot to take in: illustrations and diagrams, displays of traditional African hairstyles, mohair collages made jointly with South African weavers, commemorative ceramics, a field of rice grass whose strawlike scent is meant to pique olfactory memories. <\/p>\n A glassmaker, Strachan covers a wall with two neon signs that spell out quotes by James Baldwin, whose words appear upright, and Mark Twain, whose words appear upside down \u2014 in a nod both to the wonders of chemistry and the power of the pen to dissect issues of identity.<\/p>\n In another soaring room, dramatic bronze sculptures flip the script on the triumphs of Western civilization \u2014 placing the focus on the oppressed.<\/p>\n One piece depicts the moon, its surface pockmarked by craters. Resting on its north pole is a bust of Henson. Protruding from the moon\u2019s south pole is an upside down bust of Peary.<\/p>\n Fitting for an artist who once put himself through the physical rigors of cosmonaut training<\/a>, the show feels like a dialogue between opposing forces \u2014 boundlessness and constraint, presence and absence.<\/p>\n Strachan, who lives in New York, said his fascination with science and its hidden histories started while growing up as a curious and \u201cvery stubborn\u201d kid in Nassau.<\/p>\n He was about 12 when his family bought the first set of encyclopedias that he can remember. But something was off: few entries featured notable figures who looked like him.<\/p>\n Tavares Strachan\u2019s show at LACMA includes a room of whimsical ceramic sculptures from his \u201cInner Elder\u201d series that are positioned in a field of fragrant rice grass. <\/p>\n (Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n \u201cI think this was my first peek into social science,\u201d Strachan said. \u201cObviously, you can\u2019t collect all of this material without making decisions \u2014 you\u2019re deciding what\u2019s seen and what\u2019s unseen. It started to get me going on these questions of visibility and invisibility.\u201d<\/p>\n Strachan started to ponder his place in the ecosystem \u2014 and the universe beyond.<\/p>\n Tired of wearing the clothes that his seamstress mother made for him, Strachan raised money for shopping by working on a fishing boat, spending weeks at a time at sea.<\/p>\n At night, far from shore, more stars flickered than he\u2019d ever noticed, and he was awestruck by the way phosphorescent creatures set the waves aglow.<\/p>\n Strachan learned to navigate by tracking the movements of celestial bodies and hunt fish by reading the currents, building on the ancient knowledge his elders handed down.<\/p>\n Up until then, his 700-island archipelago had felt like the center of the world. Now his curiosity was a universe of possibilities.<\/p>\n But while his mind raced across the heavens, Strachan couldn\u2019t stop thinking about the voids that made written accounts of pioneering feats and extraordinary voyages on Earth seem incomplete. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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