GENESIS - Cornelius Tulloch

GENESIS

Cornelius Tulloch

MIA Galleries is honored to show the work of Cornelius Tulloch. Tulloch is a brilliant storyteller who communicates this world’s complexities into intentional and meaningful narratives. Growing up in Miami and drawing from his Jamaican and African American heritage, Tulloch’s work embodies a conscious introspection and reflection on identity, cultural heritage, and the natural and built environment.

The work exhibited at Miami International Airport is a selection from Genesis, a remarkable photographic series created during the height of the pandemic in 2020 and 2021. Tulloch returned to his roots while quarantining in his childhood home to document how Caribbean and Black life in Miami has transformed within the domestic space.

Combining his background in visual art, design, and architecture, Tulloch creates unique spatial compositions with altered lighting that transform the space into a surreal and dreamlike home. The resulting images capture tender moments between family and community within a transformed yet familiar space.

We hope this exhibition resonates and connects with viewers through images of shared experiences and the home environment as the “everything space” through uncertain times.

Change is the new normal. Our daily habits, the spaces we live in, and how we engage on the level of community have drastically shifted. Documented in the photographic series “Genesis” are ways in which Caribbean and Black life in Miami have transformed within domestic spaces due to Covid-19 and quarantine. Social distancing altered the fabric of the intergenerational relationships of Black communities as the idea of family extends beyond the home and blood relatives.

As we spent more time in our homes, the idle mind wandered; reality blurred into a dream, and the ordinary became everything but expected. Day after day, spaces performed in ways they previously had not before. “Genesis” depicts these complex narratives and identities and how they existed in these historic times. Through captivating imagery that reimagines Black domestic space as a cinematic stage for cultural performance, lighting, and architecture become living elements that tell the stories of Black families in Miami throughout the pandemic.

A special thank you to all the family and friends that helped make this project possible.

Front Cover: Destiny (Genesis Series), 2020. Digital photography print in satin paper, 24 x 36 in.

Image: Traditions (Genesis Series), 2020. Digital photography print in satin paper, 24 x 36 in.

Cornelius Tulloch is a Miami-based interdisciplinary artist and architect. His work transcends the barriers of photography, fine art, and architecture to tell impactful stories. He is shifting the narrative of cultural identities’ importance within the built environment by exploring how space shapes cultural identity and how cultural identity cultivates landscapes. Tulloch’s spatial storytelling through his work has been shown in institutions like the Kennedy Center, Washington D.C.; NYU Center for Black Visual Culture, New York; Faena Art Project Room, Miami; and the MAXXI, the National Museum of 21st Century Arts in Rome, Italy.

From being a 2016 Presidential Scholar in the Arts to having his work added to the permanent collection of the Studio Museum in Harlem, his success has come from the unique perspective inspired by his cultural background. He was named an Emerging Visionary Grantee by Instagram and the Brooklyn Museum’s Black Visionaries Program. As a two-time Oolite Ellies Award recipient and YoungArts Jorge M. Pérez Award recipient, his projects have been grounded within Miami’s Community. Gaining inspiration from his Jamaican and African American heritage and Miami upbringing, his work expresses how bodies exist between cultures and borders, creating spatial impact. Cornelius is a multidisciplinary talent reshaping the boundaries of art and space.

The initial production of Genesis was funded by the Ellies, Miami’s visual arts awards presented by Oolite Arts, and now supported by MIA Galleries, Miami International Airport.

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