Trans-Atlantic (2017)
Detail from Trans-Atlantic
In Trans-Atlantic, bodyprint-based silkscreen prints swim in the tide of human migration and descent. Taking the form of a 20-foot-long horizontal scroll of cloth bounded by the coasts of Africa and the Americas, Trans-Atlantic pictures generations of migration as a flow of bodies, inherited talismans, wealth, enslavement, and genetic material. The piece invites visitors to register in a ledger, Ellis Island-style, and to join the chain of inheritance by choosing among talismans to carry with them into the world—the seeds of an invasive water plant called “devil’s heads,” metal bells, pepper sauce, and livestock ear tags. Taking the artist’s own family history as a jumping off point, Trans-Atlantic illustrates a history of migration beyond the dynamic of oppressor and oppressed. Simple relationships of dominance give way to complex webs of inheritance and descent, as humans are driven by basic desires interwoven with higher hopes.
Read an interview about the piece on A Gathering of the Tribes (July 2017)
Detail from Trans-Atlantic