Philadelphia -In a rural corner of the Schuylkill river in the southwest, Philadelphia is the oldest continuously operational botanical garden in North America. BartramSuinNamed after the founder, botanist John Bartram (1699–1777), is the location of many continental scoops, including the home of the oldest ginkgo tree in North -America. But its history, as part of the larger project of the colonization of America, is never far from the surface. New species were introduced in local ecologies in gardens such as these, and after how colonial societies threw in new population to compete with or even replacement established.
That tension between trusted and abroad Venus Flytrap. Performers are symbolically “planted” for the public, frozen, with a uniform bodysuits with a plantain-influenced design, that they eventually peel to reveal more lively flower patterns. Certain identity markings, such as skin color, are housed by the suits and offer one solution for the dilemma of visibility critic Seph Rodney on his review of Minaya’s work in 2018:
One of the most in -depth dilemmas that come into play when one is an immigrant of a place where one is ruthless, made reflexively depends on the issue of visibility. On the one hand, it must be made invisible in that abstracted percentage of the minority and therefore not counted, not in the counter, not considered, not made in unreliable. On the other hand, that must be configured in the gaze of the dominant class/gender/race as a boost and unforgettably different, exceptional, exotic, is also to have someone’s desk (that is, the possibility of increasing the will in the world in other ways.
That plays with visibility in the work of Minaya is a complicated metaphor for belonging and yourself. Although Markers such as Race and Class are obscured, it plays artists with our built -in expectations by evoking what is seen as traditional femininity, including hair flips and hands on the hip. In this way she offers us a glimpse behind the curtain without throwing the mystery that pushes the shapes in our imagination.
Minaya is an artist -based artist who was raised in the Dominican Republic, and in the last decade she has influenced contemporary art through images that migration, colonization and stereotypes, often through strong contrasting patterns and fabric bodies. Venus Flytrap is the first time that Minaya formally collaborated with a choreographer (Jonathan González); In it, the body – so centrally in her previous work, especially her Containers series – comes alive through the layering of flowers ornament of both native species and those from Africa on it. This reflects the evolution of Bartram from grim colonial origin to a hub for a different type of cultural cross -pollination. Nowadays it also houses the Sankofa Community Farm, which strives to promote self -reliance with the help of the tools of the African diaphist culture of the region, making it a site that is well suited for complicating established botanical histories.
During the approximately 30 -minute performance, layers of that first feeling of strangeness are generated by those frozen uniformed figures as artists seem to relax in more well -known actions, even the behavior of park visitors through vignettes who span the field, sometimes in the midst of the audience. An artist barked like a dog; A few struck the sitting spectators; Others seemed to float or lounge over the space. Towards the end, figures loosen their bodies, collapse on the grass, strikingly exaggerated poses and hugging trees, including actions. The last part of the performance is intended to partially call up the Sorrel factory with the introduction of a festive atmosphere. Sorrel is the basis of a popular red drink in the Caribbean that is also incorporated in JuneteENTH festivals in the United States, where it is seen as a symbol of blood and the resilience of people made to slave. Of the posed elegance that the implementation starts, Venus Flytrap Grows into a carnival quietly that ends with the artists who retreat to a large tree surrounded by sailing colorful printed fabrics that the artist made in the fabric workshop and the museum of the city.
Curator Dessane Lopez CassellA former reviews -Editor at HyperallergicShares a Dominican heritage with the artist and told me that she also considered how settlers often made the Caribbean in their own image.
“This is a project that has evolved from the Containers Series that Joiri completed a few years ago, where she really thought of the inheritance of tourism and how that is informed by colonialism, essentially that many settlers have re -made the Caribbean in their image, and the way in which we have these very static images that came from the Caribbean, “they explained the Caribbean,” Zearib, “”, “”, “,” “,” “” They explained the Caribbean of the Caribbean, “” “,” “,” “,” “,” “,” “,” “” Caribisch gebied,’ ze legde uit van het Caribisch gebied, ‘ze verklaarde aan het Caribisch gebied,’ ze legde uit van het Caribisch gebied, ‘ze verklaarde aan het Caribisch gebied,’ ze legde uit van het Caribisch gebied, ‘ze verklaarde aan het Caribisch gebied,’ ze legde uit van het Caribisch gebied, ‘ze legde uit van het Caribisch gebied,’ ze legde uit van het Caribisch area, ‘she explained from the Caribbean’ Hyperallergic. ‘We used Containers As a starting point to think about how the natural world is packed and packed or otherwise tamed by things like Western Botanical Science and the larger colonial systems that we live in that nature to a botanical garden of leisure time instead of having a one-on-one relationship in the day. “
Few contemporary artists have been able to translate their gallery work into lively achievements, but Minaya excels in the challenge (I would also add Rashaad Newsome to this thin cohort). As critic Alexandra M. Thomas wrote about the work of Minaya in 2020, she demands “a visual policy that flirts with beauty, ecology and the desire to be seen, without capitulating for the attraction of exotization.”
That plays with desire, beauty and the unknown is perfectly encapsulated in the name of the performance: Venus Flytrap Suggers a danger lurking in the shadow of his beauty. But in the performance of Minaya, her display feels more like a warm embrace. Fear is nowhere to be found in the Minaya universe. Instead, she encourages us to stay curious and ask questions while she leads us through her artistic creation and looks around the garden to find the figures that sometimes go beyond our visual reach. Soon the strangeness of human forms disappears with a pattern and you are actually sad to see them go. Minaya is the allure of the exotic raised and leads us to a new known presence that becomes noticeable in his absence when the performance ends.
Joiri Minaya: Venus Flytrap Continue in Bartam’s Garden (5400 Lindbergh Boulevard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) until 29 June with printing and indigo painting workshops. The performance will be completed on 1 June. It is organized by Blackstar projects And compiled by Dessane Lopez Cassell.
Note of the editors: The writer’s travel and accommodations were supplemented with Blackstar projects.
