Laurena
Finéus

“I define innovative storytelling in my work as a witness that can attest to the various evolutionary and everlasting patterns of the history of migration. Storytelling allows for a story to be presented as adjacent and in unison to one another. It acknowledges the multiplicity of the narrators and their relational needs. In that regard, Nature holds multiple non-human witnesses to our historical faults and victories.

In my recent research, ideas of marronage have come forward and fed my approach to historicity and therefore storytelling. I see continuous thinking patterns between our maroon ancestors and migrants today from their core desire for freedom to their vibrant imaginations of brilliant futures. The story of the maroon applies to the Caribbean, as it does to the greater Americas. The common denominator is nature's role in the maroon's survival. Maroons knew how to celebrate the land and tend to their environments. I believe educating the larger public on this obvious gap in our histories brings another level of equity and relevancy to the current environmental movement. How does the environmental movement account for histories of flight, displacement, and nomadic movement across the earth?

As an artist, my practice asks what becomes of historical truth when it is disseminated and understood strictly through ‘Western’ means of remembrance. Indeed, I believe remembrance practices that are rooted in indigenous and Afro-Carribbean ways of knowing are important. Because understanding that history is watched as it unfolds, complexifies our relationship to looking at whether it is human or non-human. This provides space for conversation and I believe my paintings to continuously consider justice surrounding our natural environments and the responsibility we have as 'first world' citizens. Bridging two larger questions: who has the right to history or land?”