About a year ago Marcus Bassett came up with the idea of creating art through a mix of customisation, culture and fashion.

Although he was studying fine arts at York University in Canada, he looked to friends in Bermuda to move the plan forward – Yassine the Artist and Dion the Creative helped pull it all together.

Steppas opened at the Bermuda Society of Arts on Friday. At its centre is an installation featuring Nike Air Force 1s, each designed by one of five local artists – Jahbarri Wilson, Kayuntae the Healer, Courtney Clay, Brittany Yakima and Carlos Santana.

A sixth artist, Nobody from 441, features in “a digital roll-out” that will show for the remainder of the exhibit’s three-week run.

“The idea of Steppas was to create a collection that was very unique to the island, a locally curated and developed collection featuring Bermudian creatives in every significant role,” said Marcus.

“I wanted to put on a show that showed younger Bermudians that things can be achieved through resources on the island, to kind of combat a passive approach to art some people take. They might be apprehensive to promote or put full effort into the things that they do for fear of being judged; I wanted to put on a show that was rooted in the culture, rooted in something that was important to me, which was customisation and fashion and how it pushes the culture forward.”

He did it under the name of Made by Red, the brand he created while studying at York.

“Under the brand I have created concepts for and produced 30 videos for creators on social media. This allowed me to build a portfolio and open doors to work with Toronto-based production company Fugar Media,” he explained on Access Reelworld, a job posting platform in Canada.

That opportunity led to a range of roles – director of photography, grip, assistant camera and personal assistant.

In the summer of 2021 he found work with Melanin Unscripted, a production company in Washington DC that “focuses on telling the stories of racialised people across the globe, with a focus on Africa”.

“Since then I've been in post production. I've been in on set production, in acting roles and now this is my first time venturing into the gallery medium doing installations,” Marcus said.

The experience helped as he went about curating Steppas. Yassine, who served as creative director, set up photoshoots “of the shoes, and of the creatives with their shoes” in various spots around the island. Dion was the principal photographer and videographer.

“We’re showcasing one of one customised Nike Air Force 1s. We chose the Air Force 1 because we believe it's the most versatile shoe, probably in fashion history,” Marcus said. “It’s highly customisable – people do it all around the world – and its impact on things like music and fashion has been tremendous over the years.”

The artists were given white sneakers. Their only guideline was that the design had to be “expressive of who you are, what you'd like to say”.

“We gave them a little bit of space to explore. So if they wanted to do a piece that was purely creative expression, then they could do that,” Marcus said.

“If they wanted to say something through their piece – like a protest or social commentary – they were able to do that as well. The goal was just to have an installation with these unique pieces of art, these unique canvases.”

It fits in with Marcus’s goal of becoming a “multi-hyphenate”. He was inspired by the commencement speech at his graduation ceremony last week.

“We had a wonderful speaker tell us about the power of not limiting yourself to the word ‘or’ but raising yourself to the power ‘and’.

“I took that to heart because I feel as an artist, if I can go out there and take risks and try new mediums, make mistakes and learn from them and then grow from that, then I can be a better aid to people who might, for example, be looking at me as an inspiration, people who might want me on their team. It just gives me a better sense of how I can fit into the art world.”

At the moment he has a job at his alma mater, as an videographer and photographer with the York Federation of Students.

He met Yassine while they were in school together at Somersfield Academy; the connection with Dion was through a Parson’s Road basketball game for charity.

“We talked about each other's work and how each of us shoot and edit videos. That grew into a natural friendship, which has now turned into a working relationship,” Marcus said.

The trio chose Steppas as the exhibit title as it is “slang or vernacular for shoes”.

“When you have cool shoes or hot shoes sometimes people will call you a hot steppa,” said Marcus. “They’ll point at your feet and say, ‘Oh, you’re wearing steppas today’ or something like that. So we wanted to title it, really in the culture again, addressing Bermudian slang.”

The word so far is that nothing like it has ever exhibited before.

“That's what they're saying,” said Marcus. “My hope for this is to inspire Bermudians, and specifically younger creatives who might feel apprehensive about sharing their ideas, into putting time and effort into them, to sort of see that this can be possible with a good amount of planning and drive.”

• Steppas is on in the Edinburgh Gallery at the Bermuda Society of Arts. For more information visit bsoa.bm