Samantha Field and Sheida Soleimani spotlight the motion of people, vegetation, and animals by the hands of empire in Dwelling/Land at Baxter St on the Digital camera Membership of New York, curated by environmentalist and photographer Zoraida Lopez-Diago.
Samantha Field constructs altars to the interconnection between plant and human life, with a visible vocabulary drawn from her diasporic Jamaican family. In “Construction #1” (2018), a plastic carton of guavas overflows onto a desk with a half-eaten or rotten banana and pomegranate, fruit widespread in Jamaican delicacies. The colour and distinction of each the pictures and their set up — Field frames her items with a coloured glass whose tint glows on each wall they’re put towards — are so lush they appear nearly ripe.
Samantha Field, “Construction #1” (2018), archival inkjet print components, 32 x 40 inches (~81.3 x 101.6 cm)
Through the exhibition walk-through, Field stated that these works allude to early Flemish nonetheless lifes, which promoted the romanticization of overseas fruits, coinciding with the commodification of colonial items. In “Construction #1” (2018) Field subverts the conference of objectifying Black characters as backdrop, as in Jurian van Streek’s “Still Life with Moor and Porcelain Vessels” (1665–75), by inserting herself within the body, wanting straight on the digicam whereas biting right into a guava. Whereas such compositions are usually meant to painting the choices of colonial luxurious, she reclaims company as each artist and topic by depicting herself consuming these choices. In different works, such because the quiet “An Origin” (2020), wherein a vegetable shrouded in white lace grows a brand new stem, Field highlights the worth tags of sure meals to focus on the commodification of all life by colonial tasks, illustrating the hyperlink between a dependency on items and the extraction of supplies, vegetation, and folks from their properties.
Samantha Field, “An Origin” (2020), archival pigment prints 11 x 14 inches (~27.9 x 35.6 cm)
A chick extends its neck to feed from a tweezer holding a plump seed in Sheida Soleimani’s “Safekeeping” (2023). Behind the chick, a torn backdrop reveals snakeskin beneath. Soleimani can be a hen rehabilitator; alongside Field’s odes to the pure supplies of Jamaica, her avian works are situational narratives about reminiscence, with sure motifs repeating throughout works like prayers. A lot of her compositions, as an illustration, are trompe-l’œil tableaus fashioned with collaged images which might be infused with the second-hand reminiscence of her dad and mom escaping Iran. “Khooroos named Manoocher” (2021) options the artist’s father. His face is roofed in paper the colour of sky, and he holds a hen surrounded by a tableau of leaves, drawings, and material. The wooden of the body is stamped, like a crate able to ship, as if the reminiscences it accommodates are marked for both commodification or launch.
Taken collectively, these artists assemble different landscapes of their diasporic homelands: Soleimani, by the reminiscences of her dad and mom, and Field, by replanting the fruit of her ancestors in order that they develop once more in altars.
Samantha Field, “Navel” (2018), archival pigment print, 32 in x 40 in (~81.3 x 101.6 cm)
Sheida Soleimani, “Rice Cellar” (2024), archival pigment print, 60 in x 40 in (152.4 x101.6 cm)
Samantha Field and Sheida Soleimani: Dwelling/Land continues at Baxter St on the Digital camera Membership of New York (126 Baxter Road, Chinatown, Manhattan) by December 21. The exhibition was curated by Zoraida Lopez-Diago.