Crossing Cultures:
Family, Memory and Displacement
The Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts is presenting this exhibition, curated by Claudia Ruiz Gustafson in 2020 to revisit ideas of home, family and belonging in a nation of immigrants. The exhibition brings together a selection of work from Stories from the Kitchen Table and Spin Club Tapestry by Astrid Reischwitz, Historias fragmentadas (Fragmented Stories, Parts I, II and III) by Claudia Ruiz Gustafson, Looking for Most Ordinary Memories: Suitcase Series by Nilou Moochhala and Barquito de papel, no somos mariposas (Paper Boat, We are not Butterflies) video installation by Vivian Poey. The artists share personal experiences of immigration in the 21st century through the use of vintage family photographs to uncover their family stories and reflect upon what they have left behind while shifting countries, honoring and remembering family traditions and vanishing ways of life in the process.
Gallery Exhibition: November 19th – January 23th
Gallery Hours*: Thursdays & Fridays Noon – 6:00pm, Sat 1:00 – 6:00pm.
Gallery Visits: Available Appointment, email gallery@riphotocenter.org
Zoom Reception: December 3rd
*subject to current capacity restrictions, masks required
From the Curator: Claudia Ruiz Gustafson
Crossing Cultures is a photo based art exhibit about family, memory, displacement and identity from the point of view of four visual artists with roots in four continents: Europe (Germany), Asia (India), South America (Peru) and North America and the Caribbean (Mexico and Cuba). Through the use of vintage family photographs, and the use of different mediums: photography, mixed media and video, these artists uncover their family stories and create complex, multidimensional narratives to reflect upon what they have left behind while shifting countries and at the same time honoring and remembering family traditions and vanishing ways of life.
We are a nation of people who have come from around the globe and have experienced loss and transformation as we make our way in a new place. A place where diverse backgrounds, political beliefs, faiths, identities, and ideas come together to create something new. This exhibition embodies and celebrates this ongoing transformation in what it means to find home at a time where migration across the world is at an all-time high.
Ours is a nation of immigrants. Whereas immigration was once a founding and uniting element, it has become a subject of discord, so it’s crucial that we continue the conversation.
About the Artists:
Astrid, Claudia, Nilou and Vivian’s experiences are similar: They all came to this country as young adults, leaving their traditions, families and cultures behind. Astrid left a small village in northern Germany, Nilou left Bombay (Mumbai) in India, Vivian came to the US at age 14 after living in different Latin American countries and Claudia left Lima, the capital of Peru. They all came to the US for reasons related to study, work, and personal improvement. Here in the US, they settled, had children and at some point were confronted with what they left behind.
A commonality of their work is the use of vintage family photographs that they have collected from their many visits back to their homelands. These precious objects are remembrances of loved ones and of times gone by. The four artists incorporate these photographs in their own composites, video and mixed media art. They also place themselves in the narratives of their own pieces, fitting seamlessly, like metaphors: connecting past and present, far and near, a connection between cultures, a silent conversation with the past.
Astrid Reischwitz:
Stories from the Kitchen Table & Spin Club Tapestry
Astrid is a lens-based artist who explores storytelling from a personal perspective. Using keepsakes from family life, old photographs, and storytelling strategies, she builds a visual world of memory, identity, place, and home. Her current work incorporates embroidery and examines personal and collective memory influenced by growing up in a small farming village in Northern Germany. A village that is bound to its history and that stands out through its traditions even today.
Long ago, village women met regularly in “Spinneklumps” (Spin Clubs) to spin wool, embroider, and stitch fabrics for their homes. These close-knit groups of women often stayed together until their death.
Reischwitz studied of photography at the International Center of Photography in New York soon after moving to the United States and continued her studies at the New England School of Photography, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Lesley University. She holds a Certificate in Arts Administration from New York University and a PhD in Chemistry from the Technical University Braunschweig in Germany.
In this series, I connect the present and the past by re-creating and re-imagining pieces of the embroidery. By following the stitches in these fabrics, I follow a path through the lives of my ancestors. The patterns I have stitched myself into the paper are only abstractions of the original Spin Club designs, fragments of memory. After all, memory is fleeting, and changed forever in the act of recollection. Sometimes the stitching is incomplete, creating an invitation for future generations.
Every decision we make is influenced by our history, our environment, and the society we live in. The tapestry of my life belongs to me but is stitched through with the beauty and heartache of past generations. – Astrid Reischwitz
Bio_Astrid_Reischwitz
Artist Statement_Astrid Reischwitz
Vivian Poey:
Still from video Installation
Barquito de Papel: we are not butterflies
Vivian Poey is a photographer and educator in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her work examines a number of issues ranging from migration and cultural assimilation to the passing of time. She is American, born in Mexico of Cuban parents and lived in Guatemala and Colombia before moving to the U.S. This complicated trajectory informs all of her art, which serves as a method of investigation, and includes photography, installation and performance.
Vivian Poey earned an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and teaches Photography and Integrated Studies at the Lesley College of Art + Design.
This installation combines shifting images of borders with barquitos de papel, paper boats, folded from paper printed with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, adopted by the international community in 1989 and ratified by 196 countries (not including the United States). In this country, Immigration has always been a fraught issue. But immigration is not only an American issue; it is a human issue that impacts people across the globe in ways that can be lifesaving or devastating.
Bio_Vivian_Poey
Artist_Statement_Vivian_Poey
Nilou Moochhala:
My Very Own Suitcase Series
Nilou Moochhala’s visual practice (art & design) has been channeled into examining issues of cross-cultural change and transformation through collaging and assemblage techniques. Originally from Mumbai, she has been inspired to juxtapose found objects, memorabilia, and use of language to create social and political narratives, be it in public street spaces or private art galleries.
Moochhala received her Masters of Fine Arts in Graphic Design from the Yale University School of Art. www.nymdesign.com
As an artist/storyteller/voyeur trapped and existing between two cultures, Nilou has embraced the complex dual existence that arises from displacement and dislocation from one’s sense of home – and the desire to revisit that which was once familiar and is now lost. In this suitcase series, Moochhala uses old family photos, documents and memorabilia that reflect the journeys and paths taken – in real or imagined realms – by various family members.
Through collaging and assemblage explorations, I attempt to create dream-like environments that illuminate our collective consciousness as citizens of varied stories and experiences; and to preserve those instances and moments that create and define us. How can one recreate that sense of belonging and/or alienation through a visual narrative?
I am also very interested in exploring the space “in-between” – the shift in narrative that we experience as we cross between different “real” or imagined” spaces: whether it is our country, our culture, our sense of identity, or ourselves. When you truly do not belong to one space or another – how can you address this sense of loss, but also fluidity, and the different aspects of that existence. – Nilou Moochhala
Claudia Ruiz Gustafson:
Historias fragmentadas (Fragmented Stories)
Claudia Ruiz Gustafson is a Peruvian-born, Massachusetts-based visual artist, educator and curator. Her work is mainly autobiographical and self-reflective; often portraying themes of femininity, memory, family, dreams and personal mythology. She regards image making as a powerful medium for exploring her own inner world.
Claudia holds a BA in Communications from Universidad de Lima, and a Professional Photography Certificate from Kodak Interamericana de Perú.
I grew up in a conservative middle class family in Perú, and moved to the US when I was in my twenties. As time went by and the last of my grandparents died, I felt compelled to bring attention to what I left behind, being the only person in my family who left her country of origin. This brought me to look deeper in my past; to explore the paradox of memory and the emotion of loss.
In my series, Historias fragmentadas, I create digital compositions that unsettle the images of the past in a way that allows me to look through the cracks. By tearing, juxtaposing and layering archival documents, fragments from my journals, and objects from my childhood, I have shed light on a personal story within an ancestral story that spans generations. Continuing the quest to re-merge with what I have lost, I use staged imagery, mostly self-portraits, to transport my physical presence into the spiritual past as seen in the compositions. – Claudia Ruiz Gustafson
Bio_Claudia_Ruiz_Gustafson
Artist_Statement_Claudia_Ruiz_Gustafson
Exhibiting Artists:
Astrid Reischwitz, Claudia Ruiz Gustafson, Nilou Moochhala, Vivian Poey
Schedule*
Gallery Exhibition: November 19th – January 23th
Gallery Hours: Thursdays & Fridays Noon – 4:00pm, Sat 1:00 – 6:00pm.
Gallery Visits: Available Appointment, email gallery@riphotocenter.org
Reception*: November 19th, Zoom Reception Dec 3r
*subject to current capacity restrictions, masks required
The RI Center for Photographic Arts, RICPA 118 N. Main St. Providence, RI 02903
Located in the heart of Providence, RICPA was founded to inspire creative development and provide opportunities to engage with the community through exhibitions, education, publication, and mutual support.
RICPA exists to create a diverse and supportive community for individuals interested in learning or working in the Photographic Arts. We strive to provide an environment conducive to the free exchange of ideas in an open and cooperative space. Members should share a passion for creating, appreciating, or learning about all forms of photo-based media. We work to provide a platform for artistic expression, that fosters dialogue and drives innovation in the photographic arts.
The Gallery at the Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts is a member of Gallery Night Providence https://www.gallerynight.org/
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Questions: Contact gallery@riphotocenter.org To learn about other RICPA exhibits and programs, visit https://www.riphotocenter.org/.
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