BlackStar presents a site-specific, newly commissioned performance series and installation at Bartram’s Garden, from artist Joiri Minaya. Curated by writer and editor Dessane Lopez Cassell, the series will reflect on the intertwined legacies of freedom, extraction, and ecology in North America’s oldest surviving botanical garden.
Much like a Venus flytrap, the plant this project is named for, Joiri Minaya’s practice often employs beauty before its bite, utilizing sensuality, lush florals and hues to invite deeper reflection on thornier aspects of history and the impacts of colonialism. For this project, Minaya will craft a four-day performance series, custom textile elements, and a summer-long installation informed by the rich history of Bartram’s Garden.
Established in 1728, Bartram’s Garden is the oldest surviving botanical garden in North America, and consequently encapsulates the complexities of Philadelphia’s history and our relationships with land. From its earliest uses as a hub for Indigenous trade to the role of founder John Bartram in popularizing Eurocentric notions of “modern botany,” Bartram’s Garden can be understood as a microcosm for the ongoing colonial experiment. With Venus Flytrap, Minaya extends her long-running interest in foregrounding the histories and possibilities of local and Indigenous plant life. Together, Minaya and Cassell seek to reveal hidden histories of labor and anti-colonial resistance buried in the grounds of Bartram’s Garden and historic Kingsessing, and their echoes across the Americas
About Joiri Minaya
Joiri Minaya is a New York-based interdisciplinary artist who works in photography, digital media, film, performance, sculpture, textiles and painting. Born in New York and raised in the Dominican Republic, Minaya describes her multiculturally-informed work as ‘a reassertion of Self, an exercise of unlearning, decolonizing, and exorcizing imposed histories.’ Minaya has recently been part of exhibitions and screenings at the Guggenheim Museum and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, as well as international exhibitions like the Prospect 6 New Orleans Triennial, the Cooper Hewitt Triennial and the Sharjah Biennial 15. She is a recent recipient of the Latinx Artist Fellowship, NYSCA / NYFA Artist Fellowship, Jerome Hill Fellowship, Artadia award and has been an artist in residence at the International Studio & Curatorial Program, Light Work, Socrates Sculpture Park and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.
About Dessane Lopez Cassell
Dessane Lopez Cassell is a New York-based editor, writer and curator. Her work spans film and visual art and their intersections, with a particular interest in race and gender. Cassell’s writing has been published in various magazines, journals, and books, including The Los Angeles Times, The Criterion Collection, Hyperallergic and Film Comment. She has curated exhibitions and screenings at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Museum of Modern Art, Metrograph/Abrons Arts Center, The Studio Museum in Harlem and Anthology Film Archives. Cassell is a former programmer for BlackStar Film Festival and former Editor-in-Chief of BlackStar’s journal, Seen.
