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Not Only Over Seas, But Soil

Shannon Lewis

February 1, 2022 - February 26, 2022

Essay by leaf jerlefia

Not Only Over Seas, But Soil deals with charting unknown waters, navigating new territories, and creating maps for future generations. In this silk chiffon installation dreamscape, the figures are travellers, who construct domains out of their found resources and help each other along the way. Their journeys are stand ins for how Black, femme bodies are directed to move in the world and survive in a capitalist, colonial, transnational sphere. Traces of the past, embedded in bodies, potentially shift meaning as they migrate. Performance and adaptability illuminate socio-economic histories. 

The foundational imagery was created while on residency at Alice Yard in Trinidad and Tobago, where the artist’s family originates. And from that, a completely new series was created for Xpace.

Photo documentation by Polina Teif

 

Video Documentation by Miles Rufelds.
https://www.milesrufelds.com/