STILL MOTION

by Ashanti McGee

Presented by Weaving Our Cultures Arts Festival collective, Still Motion joins femme, non-binary, and feminine-presenting artists of color who traverse the complexity of identity and connection to their environment.

Organized by the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art curatorial team with a visual design by Chloe Bernardo, Still Motion asks questions about deeper connections to nature’s creative role as it relates to people. This exhibition contemplates contemporary cross-generational, Indigenous, and multicultural perspectives in land relationship. These works, which include Maureen Gruben’s Stitching My Landscape, Cara Romero’s Sand & Stone, Abigail, and Vayda, Quindo Miller’s When You’re Older You’ll Understand, and Bernardo’s Nilimbayan Stills with Janggay, weave generations of practice and preservation with stories of land and personal interdependence. We elevate these traditions and acknowledge these understandings to be integral to further knowledge of the world we participate in. Elements of earth, water, and air echo throughout Still Motion

Still Motion encompasses feminine presence. Quite often, contemporary society equates the feminine with weakness or fragility. This exhibition challenges these ideas and reaffirms that feminine strength, fortitude, and gentleness are just as powerful as any masculine attribute. The firmness and care of Laura Aguilar’s photographs of female nude forms stoically resemble the land in which they are invisibly tethered. Natalie Delgado’s drawings of fauna using earth, water, fire, and air, remind us that elements that were here before our existence, when applied, create dynamic change in most subtle ways. Yacine Tilala Fall’s drops of liquid examine the impact of calculated and concentrated patience over time. In Romero’s Sand & Stone, the artist has placed the model under sand, revealing only her head, hair, and arms. The model’s hair is carefully coiffed, mimicking ocean waves. The model looks towards the viewer piercingly, yet gently, steadfast and affirming her belonging as earth lovingly envelopes her. Unapologetic (and often feminine) indigenous connection to land and sea are common themes in Romero’s work as the artist creates strength through the idea of “mother” holding her child in this piece.

Artists Ana Mendieta, Quindo Miller, Laura Aguilar, Chloe J. Bernardo, Cara Romero (Chemehuevi), Jung Min, Fay Ku, Natalie Delgado, Yacine Tilala Fall, Maureen Gruben (Inuvialuk), and Nanda Sharifpour balance these intimate and intricate themes through photography, land art, sculpture, video, and various media. Still Motion lovingly captures seemingly static moments encompassing powerful undercurrents of locale, tenacity, and remembrance.