25East Gallery is pleased to present Displaced Landscapes, an exhibition curated by Anahita Bagheri featuring artists Paguio, Devin Duster, Fran Harris, Guangyuan Xing, Hannah Bang, Sumaiya Saiyed, Valeria or oscar, Victoria Norton, Yeabsera Tabb, and Ziqi Li.
In this exhibition, the concept of landscape transcends nature and embraces a broader concept of the sense of place. Displaced Landscapes encompasses the intricate and ever-evolving border spaces both within and beyond which intricately shape our world. Here landscape is a metaphor for exploring and contemplating things in our surroundings. This includes all that we spend time looking at and experiencing from a distance whether it is in our vicinity, memories, or imagination.
Cassi Paguio’s painting shares her personal sanctuary, which she envisions as her ideal space: the boundless
ocean. The portal comes alive with a myriad of blues, perfectly mirroring the vast expanse of the ocean that
captivates the soul. Through textured brush strokes, she infuses the scene with movement and fluidity, coaxing
the viewer to step into this world and immerse themselves in the water. The painted portal extends an invitation
to enter this idealized realm, a true sanctuary for the soul.
Devin Duster’s paintings and prints depict relationships within the American landscape, both physically and
ideologically. The paintings themselves address this landscape but also question what is visible and what goes
unseen.”
Over the past three years, Fran Haris has documented the spaces she has visited and the ephemera she discovers
in them. She uses those images as a reference. Images that are transformed by the filter of her
memory, experience, feelings, and emotional associations. Her paintings reconcile two distinct forms of
memory: the static image of a specific space or object and the emotions these images bring up.
Guangyuan Xing’s video speaks about the subtle distance between people, and the emotions that replace distance
and make up for the unseen bond in the multi-dimensional world. The video compresses the space of a
four-dimensional world into a two-dimensional presentation. “The moon does wax, the moon does wane, and
so men meet and say goodbye. I only pray our life be long, And our souls together heavenward fly!”
Hannah Bang’s paintings are part of a video installation exploring the boundary between dreams and wakefulness.
It symbolically captures how personal struggles and triumphs often appear insignificant in the face of an
expansive and enigmatic cosmic order. Her paintings takes the viewer to the realm of sleep, to contemplate
the mysteries beyond our conscious awareness.
Sumaiya Saiyed’s wall sculpture bring forward multiple layers of material through decay and manipulation
to showcase various phases of existen. The piece challenges existing notions, processes, and
forms of a perfect body in a perfect invironment. Simultaneously, it celebrates the distortions and disorders
by exploring them within the theme of decay and enticing.
Valeria or oscar’s open ended line drawings in the indoor space of th gallery formally mimick theoretical proposals
of exclusion. They upset an anglo disposition of appearances, by doing simple accessible processes that
can be understood with ease.
Victoria Norton with her instalation presents a video that is a live collage happening in real time. A 90’s era tv
monitor with a video of a fireplace recalls warmth and domesticity, while simultaneously acting as a warning –
reminiscent of news footage from the recent years of wildfires ripping through landscapes across the globe.
Her work investigates the connection between environmental trauma and personal trauma.
As an African Yeabsera Tabb’s explores the complexity of the imperialist and extractive western world
and it’s impact on the continent of Africa as a whole, her work grounds itself in the deeply wholistic
and communal identity of an African household. Talking inspiration from spatial identities in Africa,
how a physical place and people occupying that place operate and witnessing the divers cultural separation
from my own experience here, I weave together what it mean to occupy a place in my own
skin in a culturally and politically complex world as a Black immigrant. Through using transparency
with silk chiffon, embroidery, and printmaking, I explore what it mean to occupy a place and to leave
it and to come back to it. To stitch back memories as they fade away and come back to the surface.
Ziqi Li’s sculpture is a reflection of the intricate relationship between humans and the environment,
with a particular focus on the passage of time and the stories embedded within discarded
materials that bear the traces of a forgotten past which she collected at the Dead Horse Bay in Brooklyn.
For inquiries please contact the curator Anahita Bagheri at info@anahitabagheri.com .
