In Search of a Certain Eden (Natura Negra series)
2019 - Photography (Photography)
111.76 x 139.7 cm
Chanell Stone
Natura Negra , which translates to “Black Nature”, is a black-and-white photographic series by Chanell Stone that explores the connection between the Black body and nature within man-made environments. The series features a compilation of environmental portraits staged in urban “forests” that explore the notion of “holding space” within one’s immediate environment. Each image depicts an effort to reclaim and reconnect with the earth, even in spaces of compartmentalized nature like backyard gardens, flora intended as urban beautification, and lush public spaces. The photograph In Search of a Certain Eden depicts the artist standing in a bed of blooming flowers in front of a school in Brooklyn, NYC. Unknown to the artist at the time, the flower is called a Plantation Lily, which blossoms once a year. This kind of serendipitous detail is common in Stone’s practice, as she often creates work spontaneously as she wanders through urban settings. For Stone, this series operates in the legacy of the Great Migration, which saw the movement of 6 million African Americans out of the rural Southern United States to the urban Northeast, Midwest, and West between 1916 and 1970 in an attempt to escape racist ideology, widespread lynching, and the subsequent limited econominc opportunties. When Black Americans fled the horrific conditions of the South during this time, and arrived in urban areas like Chicago and Los Angeles, they often left behind not only their economic and social bases, but also their connection to the land. Stone’s Natura Negra series functions as an argument for a rekindling and reawakening of this latent bond. Stone’s project reveals the inherent disconnection from nature that corresponds to the realities of urban life, but also suggests that cultivated urban spaces can act as rich—if more nuanced—sites for communing and (re)connecting with nature.
Chanell Stone’s practice explores what she describes as the “re-naturing” of the Black body to the American landscape—an act that aims to complicate and sublimate the history of American slavery into a reimagined relationship between African Americans and the earth. She describes growing up feeling that, as an African American, “this isn’t your land or it isn’t for you.” She remembers often hearing how America was built by immigrants, and while that may be one aspect of America’s history, Stone’s work demonstrates how crucial it is to acknowledge that America was also built by various slavery structures, and in particular, Black slaves, and Black Americans. The artist’s work challenges subtle and insidious forms of Black erasure such as the immigrant narrative. In response to such narratives, she has recently spent time examining this history with her family—looking through photo albums and listening to her grandmother’s memories. For Stone, it is a way for her to reclaim the narrative, and to piece together a fractured American history.
Colors:
Related works sharing similar palette
© » DIANE PERNET
Dutch Emerging: Ruben Janssen X GRA Fashion Bachelor 2023 – A Shaded View on Fashion From the back to the middle and around again — Ria’s wedding dress, Alan’s patterns and John’s model: ‘My project is an investigation into evolution, explored through prisms of biology, computation and a poetic personal narrative, shifting between timescales on an evolutionary timeline...
© » KADIST
Stan Douglas
1997Michigan Central Station is part of a larger photographic series, Detroit Photos , which includes images of houses, theaters, stadiums, offices, and other municipal structures...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
Solid are the Winds: Aeolian Encounters at The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial (Part I) | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles Natasha Harth for QAGOMA untitled (giran) (2018), Jonathan Jones in collaboration with Dr Uncle Stan Grant Snr AM January 10, 2019 By Marcus Yee (1259 words, five-minute read) This is the first of a two-part essay on the 9th Asia Pacific Triennial running at the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Australia, from 24 November 2018 to 28 April 2019...
© » THE RE:ART
Installation art by Şakir Gökçebağ - The re:art Installation art by Şakir Gökçebağ The art of Şakir Gökçebağ plays with one’s perception of normality and challenges any prior convention or knowledge of how things were designed to function and how they exist in the order and logic of the everyday man-made world...
© » KADIST
Mary Helena Clark
2014The Dragon is the Frame by Mary Helena Clark is an elegy that is somewhat paradoxically organized as a film noir or murder mystery, one that pays direct homage to Hitchcock’s Vertigo ...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
Weekly Southeast Asia Radar: Vietnam's post-war writers; Burmese voices in book | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Radar BACC October 8, 2020 ArtsEquator’s Southeast Asia Radar features articles and posts about arts and culture in Southeast Asia, drawn from local and regional websites and publications – aggregated content from outside sources, so we are exposed to a multitude of voices in the region...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
Transgression, triggers, and the thousand cuts of “Blunt Knife” | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles Photo courtesy of the artist June 25, 2019 By Corrie Tan (2,700 words, 13 -minute read) Content Warning: Mentions of a sexual relationship involving a teenager This response contains major spoilers for Blunt Knife by Eng Kai Er and A Doll’s House by Theatre of Europe...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
Getting schooled on the arts (via The Star) | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles September 14, 2018 From surprise visits to schools, replacing white shoes with black, and referencing the Finnish education system as a possible one to emulate, the new Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik has made waves with his fresh approach...
© » KADIST
Mikhael Subotzky
2006At the halfway point along South Africa’s Highway N1, running from Cape Town to Johannesburg, sits the small town of Beaufort West...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
BIPAM 2021: Delight, despair, dialogue and the despot | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Viewpoints September 17, 2021 By Nabilah Said (1,800 words, 6-minute read) I’ve never actually attended the Bangkok International Performing Arts Meeting (BIPAM)...
© » KADIST
Reza Aramesh
2016The photographed plaster heads set against the idyllic landscapes of the south of England, subvert the process of image production and memory...