exhibition opening & artist talk

Corinne Silva’s Gardening the Suburbs takes on the form of a large-scale, undulating, irregular installation, made up of clusters of photographs of Israeli settlement gardens which she documented between 2010-2013. Silva’s installation considers what gardens mean in the context of contemporary Israeli colonization. It also connects this microcosm of colonialism to a pattern of neoliberal housing projects that shape landscapes worldwide.

In response to the artwork, we have also initiated the reading of our own gardening practices by labeling and understanding the origins of all existing plants at Makan Art Space. This self-reflective process has made us aware that none of our plants are native, provoking us to have a more informed understanding of the shifting commercial and aesthetic trends that dictate gardens today.

the botanical conflict: artist talk

April 16th @ 7 pm

Silva presents her extensive research and production process for the photographic wall installation Gardening the Suburbs. She dissects her meditative visual language, which offers a way of reading what she terms the “botanical conflict”: a highly dangerous Israeli military-civilian occupation disguised in suburban settlement gardens. Silva connects this microcosm of colonialism to a pattern of neoliberal housing projects that shape landscapes worldwide.

This illustrated talk is followed by a Q&A