Migratory Roots
2023
“Instead of asking what are people‘s roots, we ought to think about what are their
r-o-u-t-e-s”
—Stuart Hall
‘Migratory Roots’, presented at the Jule Collins Smith Museuem, explores landscape, light, and classification as an allegory to the black body in the Southern U.S. Paintings of specific southern flora sit alongside back-lit images of Black Americans in bucolic garden spaces. Monochrome blue squares, meant to evoke the color of a joyful blue sky, reveal skeptical texts when viewed in the right light. Intersperesed throughout are twin editions of John James Audobons taxonomic illustrations of local bird species.
All are meant to point to the dubious nature of being seen as either “planted” or “fixed”. The flora is not indigenous to the south, but is there as a result of colonial trade; the Audobon prints are not definitive documents of a species, but are editions prone to human discretion and the decay of time; and while the black bodies are present within the outdoor spaces, they remain unseen in the glare of the surourounding light. The works are meant to visualize the expereince of defining ‘home’ in a place that feels bright, and safe, and known, yet ultimately rejects you.