Kemi Craig
Gesig Isaac
Tiffany Joseph
Joshua Ngenda
Exhibition: February 14-16, 2020
Opening: Friday, February 14, 6-9pm
Location: Devonshire Studio Gallery, 858 Devonshire Road
The Artemisia Institute is pleased to announce its inaugural exhibition. Each year, the institute will present a show on a theme related to one of our research streams. This year the exhibition is titled ROOT SHOCK, working in the research stream of MIGRATIONS AND MOBILITIES.
Root shock, or transplant shock, is a term from botany that refers to a number of stresses occurring in recently transplanted trees and shrubs. It involves failure of the plant to root well, consequently the plant becomes poorly established in the landscape (Pecknold 2001).
Dr. Mindy Fullilove (2004) applied this term to displacement of people, where she says: “Root shock, at the level of the individual, is a profound emotional upheaval that destroys the working model of the world that had existed in the individual’s head. Root shock undermines trust, increases anxiety about letting loved ones out of one’s sight, destabilizes relationships, destroys social, emotional, and financial resources, and increases the risk for every kind of stress-related disease” (p 38). This exhibition will Build on Fullilove’s use of this term in urban settings, thinking about how it relates to migration, displacement, connection to land base, and ecological grief. This exhibition seeks to showcase work that engages critically with these ideas in ways that are rooted in interrogating colonialism and marginalization.