New Bill Ming Sculpture to Be Unveiled

Bill Ming, a Bermudian artist and sculptor will add another work of art to the growing amount of public sculptures appearing around the Island, as he was selected by HSBC Bermuda to create a new work that will be placed on the Front Street side of the old Bank of Berrmuda building at Number One Front Street. This new work joins HSBC’s display of Mr Ming work that’s in the HSBC Harbourview Centre.

Mr Ming doesn’t normally live in Bermuda. He is a transplanted and well-known and respected Bermudian artist with a studio in the UK who does most, and sells most, of his work in the UK.

Born in Bermuda in 1944, he grew up in Devonshire attending Elliott School and then the Bermuda Technical Institute from which he dropped out, aged fourteen, in 1958. He says that at that time he suffered from claustrophobia, and was so prone to crying that his peers called him a crybaby. At that time he also found it difficult to speak in public and frequently stammered.

However, through all of this, Bill Ming says that he was always trying his hand at various kinds of art. Collages and sketches which he did all the time, and some experimenting with sculpture.

After dropping out of “Tech”, Mr Ming went to work as an offset printer at the Royal Gazette where he stayed until 1963, leaving that job to work, for three years, on the “Queen of Bermuda”, a cruiseliner that ran regular trips between NYC and Hamilton. Through all this time he kept dabbling in various forms of art trying to understand what he was doing and how to do it.

In 1966, the “Queen” went to the scrapheap and Mr Ming went to what is now BTC. After BTC, a spell as a plumber, then digging ditches, some time in ‘construction’, and then two years – 1970 to 1972 – in the catering section of BAS at the airport. By now Mr Ming was clearer about what he wanted to do but he still had his Father’s stern admonition to “Get a proper job.”

What helped Mr Ming get a clearer idea of what he wanted to do? A chance encounter with an American artist who had seen some of his rudimentary work. This resulted in the American telling Mr Ming: “You’ve got to get out of here.”

Taking that advice and taking his two years savings from his two years work at BAS, in October 1971, Mr Ming went to the UK to study art. He wound his way up to Newark in Nottinghamshire and began his studies at Mansfield College of Art. With no ‘O’ levels, and aged 28, Mr Ming had to start out at the same level as British 14 year-olds. He began studying Graphic Design and, at that time, was the only black man in the school.

He persevered and by 1976 moved on to Maidstone College of Art in Kent. In 1979 he opened an art studio, but he was not yet earning a living from his art. To keep going he worked, part-time, in a sugar factory, creating in his time away from that job.

Mr Ming was inspired by the original African art on display in the UK. He says: “I looked at African carvings and this was a catalyst to make me what I am today.”

Now aged 35, his art began selling and he moved into a wider world of art and musicians. As well, the UK Government began a national program of getting artists, musicians, and sculptors to go into the state schools and display and talk about their art and their work and their culture. Whilst in this program, he met his present companion Nadia.

Then, in 1992 and aged 48, he hit major creative success. He was selected as the first non-white English person to receive a grant as a Henry Moore Fellow at Liverpool University. This Fellowship was for one year and in that same year, he was selected to do a “Homecoming” Exhibition for the Queen; showed at the Commonwealth Institute; and his meeting the Queen was what had propelled him on to the front pages of the Royal Gazette.

According to Mr Ming, the only little blip in that year of triumph was that the Bermuda Department of Cultural Affairs ignored his request for a grant, but this was balanced by the fact that his father finally saw his work and agreed that he was a success.

Mr Ming was asked to create the St David’s Head memorial for all those Bermudians known to have been lost at sea. This memorial was unveiled in 2005.

Asked what it takes to do what he has done: “…must be original and dare to be different. Be positive.”

Two Bermudians, Charles Zuill and Shirley Pearman, played a part in uncovering this Bermudian sculptor. Bill Ming’s new work will be unveiled on Tuesday 29th March.

#Artists #HSBCBank

Category: All