They wear a black ballet tutu ruffle around their neck, blue bracelets, lots of bling and high-top sneakers.Are the mannequins featured in the latest Bermuda National Gallery (BNG) exhibition men or women?That’s for the viewer to explore, in the ‘Out and Bad’ exhibition opening on January 20 at the BNG. The Jamaican artist, Ebony Patterson, a professor at the University of Kentucky, was in Bermuda to install her show at the gallery.Miss Patterson is well known for her work exploring Jamaican dancehall culture and gender. Dancehall is a style of music that was highly popular in Jamaican in the 1970s and 1980s. Although in the 1980s the music came under fire for its homophobic lyrics, many of its musicians such as ‘The Elephant Man’ were known for their over-the-top feminine attire.‘Out and Bad’ features a number of mannequins dressed to the nines in outrageous outfits that include everything from bright patterns to high-top sneakers to bracelets and heavy fake silver chains. The mannequins’ faces are covered with flowery fabrics. One part of the exhibition features a store exhibiting outfits and bling that might be bought for a dancehall night. Another part of the exhibition features large tapestries featuring eye-popping outfits.“In dancehall culture one never repeats one’s outfit, so I started wondering what would a whole month of dancehall outfits look like,” said Miss Patterson. “The exhibition will look specifically at fashion in dancehall. The work in the exhibition has been developed over two to three years. It uses clothing I had used for previous photo-based projects.”In her tapestries, the person has been removed to leave only the clothing. She took the person out because she wanted to see what story the clothes told about the wearer, when the wearer wasn’t there.“It is also looking at how clothing is used to structure identities and so-called ideals around personality,” she said. “There are moments where I am playing things up a little bit more than reality. However, look at someone like Elephant Man, who I have always thought was this incredibly camp (exaggerated and theatrical) character in dancehall. I don’t think it would be impossible to see Elephant Man wearing a suit like the ones on my mannequin. I could also see the dancehall street dancer Bogle wearing something like this.”She gets her materials from all over. She loves poking around in fabric stores, and she also finds little treasures like the heavy silver chain on one of the mannequins on websites like ebay.“I love shopping for fabric and fabric that is interesting,” she said. “I can’t sew or cut. I can only visualise the ideas and I work with a tailor to make the outfits. Then I take them back to the tailor to add embellishments as I see fit on the clothing. But the making of the clothing is an incredibly layered process. In some ways just as layered as the tapestries.”This is her second visit to the Island. She was here in 2010 to give a lecture about masculinity and Jamaican dancehall culture at the Bermuda College. She said she has not yet had much time to observe Bermudian culture, but what struck her on her first visit was Bermuda shorts.“Before coming here I really didn’t make the connection between Bermuda the islands and Bermuda the shorts,” she said. “The first person I saw wearing Bermuda shorts was an older American gentleman. In my head I was thinking it was so funny. At my hotel, the men working there were all wearing Bermuda shorts. It was also quite camp. The pair I remember the most was a green pair that was in the hotel shop. I have been noticing a couple of young men who I have seen on occasion up and down the street. They are all dressed in what could be considered urban looking fashion. You can see the parallels with American popular culture.“This time I have asked to go out to a night scene so I can see what the young Bermudian in that setting looks like and what does the young Bermudian listen to. The last time I was here I had a couple conversations with some young Bermudians at the Bermuda College. There were a couple of people who were very well engaged with dancehall who told me that there were a couple of street dancers who have come here from Jamaica to introduce kids to popular dances in dancehall. One of the things I hope happens on this trip is to see how something like that becomes retranslated in a culture like Bermuda.”She is currently organising a multimedia interaction project that will involve young people in Bermuda, Jamaica and other parts of the Caribbean.Miss Patterson, 31, was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and graduated from the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts where she received an Honors Diploma in Painting, and from Sam Fox College of Art and Design at the Washington University in St Louis, with a Masters in Fine Arts in Printmaking and Drawing.She has participated in several group exhibitions in Jamaica and abroad since 2001, and has won a number of awards for her work. In 2011, the Rhodes Trust in the Caribbean awarded her the Rex Nettleford Fellowship for cultural studies. She also received the Prime Minister Youth Award for Excellence in Art and Culture 2006, the SuperPlus Under 40 Artist of the Year 2005, the Young Alumni Award of Distinction 2011 by her alma mater Washington University in St Louis.The ‘Out and Bad’ exhibition is on at the BNG until June. The BNG is currently looking for support from the community to sponsor the exhibition. For more information see their website at www.bng.com or telephone 295-9428 or e-mail education at education[AT]bng.bm.