Land-
learning
The 2024 AIRIE Alumni exhibition “Land-learning” surveys the tangible and intangible experiences, stories, and records of the Everglades. This group show explores the investigations of fellows during their time as resident artists in the Everglades.
Artists continue to contribute and challenge learning systems to communicate the natural world. Whether through scientific data, ancestral memory, historical records, or oral storytelling, AIRIE Fellows find themselves inspired by the stories of the landscape of the Everglades, combining methodology and mythology. Their unique observations materialize and help educate the greater public to learn about the land, guide us in how we steward it, and understand our place within the larger ecosystem. We must unlearn, relearn, and transform our learning systems by truly listening to the landscape we inhabit, which shapes our cultural identity. The works in the exhibition become tools and lessons to guide current and future generations in creating affirming spaces within the environment.
Join us for the opening of the “Land-learning” exhibiton, Saturday November 23rd at 11 am. Mingle with AIRIE Artists and Team and refreshments provided! RSVP here.
The exhibition is on view now at the AIRIE Nest Gallery, which is open seven days a week and free for all guests at the Ernest F. Coe Visitors Center in Everglades National Park.
Works in the Exhibition
Atéha Bailly (Jojo Sounds)
HOMESTEAD FREESTYLE, 2024
Music
“HOMESTEAD FREESTYLE” is the confrontation of a childlike sense of wonder with realities of the economic, geographic, and cultural exclusion in America's past and present. It confronts such realities with assertions of the continued impact and presence of Indigenous and African-descended peoples. Through its freestyle structure, the song celebrates the space offered for reflection by the long, straight, flat drives through the Everglades. At the same time, the lyrics contemplate belonging and reparations in the face of initiatives to make American national parks more inclusive spaces.
Diana Eusebio
Spanish Moss Yellow, 2023
Digitally printed photography on cotton fabric dyed with Spanish Moss
Diana Eusebio is a Peruvian-Dominican multidisciplinary artist based in Miami, Florida. In a practice that spans wearable garments, textiles, and photography, Eusebio researches Black and Latinx diasporic stories and pre-Columbian textile traditions. Her pieces employ color derived from plants and natural materials to honor Indigenous natural dyeing techniques and recontextualize our reciprocal connection to the natural world. By combining ancestral and modern processes such as natural dyeing and digital textile printing, her work catalogs a powerful record of contemporary Afro-Latinx and Indigenous history.
Maya Freelon
Piece by Peace, 2024
Tissue paper quilt
In the spirit of quilting bees and maximizing minimal resources, creating tissue quilts allows our minds to open up to new approaches using familiar materials. As Maya’s grandmother would say, "We know how to make something out of nothing... and how to make a way out of no way!" A single scrap of paper alone can seem insignificant, small, unnoticed, or like nothing at all, but when joined together with others there is power, unity, and beauty. If people can come together with the same materials and help create monumental artwork together, it's a shared, transformational experience.
Venus Jasper
Mosquito Shrine, 2024
Sculpture
“Being here as an artist is remarkable, but it is also peculiar. I initially planned to create works from the environment, which I had to forgo because visitors cannot take from the land. However, I became extremely intrigued by the presence of the mosquito, a tiny creature that lives foremostly on nectar and is known to us solely for its nuisance. I wanted to flip this connection and pay reverence to an insect, who, according to my research, is a forerunner in driving our environment’s ecosystem…
In the end, we might need mosquitos to make us feel wanted by the earth.” - Venus
Sydney Maubert
Queen of the Swamp: The Saltwater Railroad, 2023
Architectural drawing
The drawing is a map that acknowledges the Afro-Indigenous history and intersectionality of the Florida Everglades through the history of Black Caribbean and Seminole people who together stewarded the land. The map deploys archival images of Black and Seminole people living in the Everglades with modern local aesthetics. This project seeks to solve the estrangement of Black people in Greater Miami from knowing their heritage and practices of maroonage within the context of the Everglades. It offers a more generous lens on our understanding of relationships to land and kinship with our Indigenous communities and ancestors. It opens up a dialogue about our historical and contemporary understandings of stewardship, offering modern-day Black aesthetic practices in Miami as an evolution or creolization of Indigeneity.
Gal Nissim
התגלות | Revelation, 2024
Sculpture
"Revelation" is a sculpture of a hybrid entity exploring a contemporary myth. Crocodiles, being ancient creatures, were revered in numerous cultures and held both symbolic and mystical significance. The project draws inspiration from John's vision in the Book of Revelation. In ancient Greek, "apocalypse" signifies "revelation," but due to the Book of Revelation, the term now carries connotations of destruction.
In John's vision, a creature called 'Tanin' (crocodile/alligator) is identified as Satan. While nowadays, American crocodiles are classified as "threatened" in conservation, American alligators play a pivotal role as keystone species. Their absence would significantly disrupt the ecological balance. The project prompts introspection regarding the repercussions of our actions on nature.
The project encourages philosophical contemplation on our relationship with nature and the far-reaching consequences of our environmental impact. It urges us to draw inspiration from our ancestors' observations of creatures and their narrative interpretations. The overarching goal is to instigate a renewed appreciation for nature and its profound relevance in our lives.
Meg Ojala
Everglades Undone, 2024
Photography and drawing combined in an inkjet print
Meg’s intention is to make a sequence of pieces, incorporating photographs, drawings, and text, to show that the Everglades is a river moving slowly down a limestone slope into Florida Bay. It was almost destroyed by human intervention. It is vast, diverse, and resilient. And now it is imperiled again by climate change and sea rise. Meg would like the viewer to be curious about and develop empathy for this living entity. This piece is a prototype for a section of the sequence.
Alejandro Rodriguez
Sundown, 2024
Ink on Paper
“Sundown” was the result of a ritual/practice Alejandro engaged in during his September 2023 residency, to write one short form piece about an encounter in the Park every day. A poet's version of the documentary photograph. He then sent the bouquet of poems to his friend Ali Rose in Brooklyn, and she chose “Sundown” to add her visual magic.
Kunya Rowley
Dream Variations in the Wild, 2024
Video
Kunya's time in the Everglades, as part of the AIRIE residency, centered on the building of original soundscapes and curation of art songs by Black composers. The piece in this video, “Dream Variations in the Wild,” features the art song “Dream Variations” set by composer Brandon Spencer. The video is a digital reclamation of land, space, and place to create a piece honoring the tenets of belonging, history, and joy.
Khari Turner
Fond Memories of Foliage, 2024
Painting
For Khari Turner, growing up in Milwaukee created a relationship with Black people, water, and his environment, which plays a major role in his work. His practice involves sourcing materials directly from different bodies of water, including the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, his hometown's Lake Michigan, and the Milwaukee River. He aims to eventually start work directly related to water health, environmental conservation, and bringing art to low-income neighborhoods. This piece is a mix of an image from his time taking a tour next to Alligator Hole in the swamp area and the signature of his art style with the water he got while in Florida mixed with ink.
*All work included in Land-learning is courtesy of the Artists, AIRIE, and the Everglades National Park. Banner image is Fond Memories of Foliage by Khari Turner. Learn more about the AIRIE Gallery here.