Curated by Hank Willis Thomas
CUE Art Foundation
137 W 25th St, New York, NY 10001
Opening: April 7, 2016, 6-8 PM
On view from April 7-May 12
Kambui Olujimi presents the opening of Solastalgia at the CUE Art Foundation. The exhibition includes large-scale sculptures, silkscreens, and paintings. The works in the show reside at the intersection of numerous issues of current concern to me: the condition of New York City and the nation including gentrification, police killings (both by and of the police), as well as the challenges of commemoration and loss.
The term solastalgia was coined by Australian philosopher Glenn Albrecht in 2003. Essentially it is the feeling of homesickness when one is still home. “Solastalgia is when your endemic sense of place is being violated,” Albrecht describes. Though the term originally references the psychological displacement of farmers due to climate change, I use it as a lens to examine the psychological dynamics tied to the rapidly changing five boroughs.
