Bronx River Art Center (BRAC) Presents

DIASPORIC DYSPLASIA

March 11th - April 16th, 2022

With a live reception, Friday, March 11th from 6:30 - 8:00 PM

Bronx River Art Center (BRAC) is pleased to announce the presentation of, DIASPORIC DYSPLASIA, curated by Toisha Tucker. The exhibition will open to the public with a live reception at limited capacity on Friday evening, March 11th at 6:30 pm and run through Saturday, April 16th.

Click HERE to RSVP for opening reception

The artists featured in the exhibition are: Lorena Cruz Santiago, Meital Yaniv, Sarah Tortora, Slinko, Unyimeabasi Udoh and Yasmeen Nematt Alla

Send her back. The lands we live on have never been anything to many of us other than home. Yet, it is on the soils of these countries where many of us exist as Other. The ideals that drive nationalism are not founded on notions of a full spectrum of colors, but instead a devout homogeneity to an abstracted cultural ideal. Within these borders, there are those of us who get to be Americans or Canadians or British full stop and also get to be German, French etc. and there are those of us who get to be hyphens: African-American, Mexican-American, British-Nigerian etc. Our nomenclature sets us apart as not wholly part of our birthrights-we are dashed halves. We are people who can be sent back.

Diasporic Dysplasia explores the space of living and thriving within a multiplicity of cultural identities whether as immigrant or natural born citizen on soils of diasporas, firm and figurative. The abnormalities in self-perception that can emerge in that struggle to navigate the penumbra of who we are when we are many things, but also maybe none. This exhibition delves into the way some of us deal with this tension in manners that aren’t normative to the structures of our cultures-dysphasic and displaced from ourselves, other within the Other. 

The works on display in Diasporic Dysplasia include Lorena Cruz Santiago’s intimately stark video Do You/Did You, Meital Yaniv’s burdensome concrete cast of five years of papers from their US visa application, ephemera from the 12-hour durational performance Monsters In Their Eyes and their topographic projection of assimilation bloodlines, Sarah Tortora’s romantic prop-like sculpture Yolanda and Vessel Piece made from paper pulp, resin, wood, and found geodes/mineral deposits that conflates human scale at its most essential with a scale of geological history impossible to fathom, Slinko’s winsome video Ghost Looking for its Spirit which parses failures and aspirations of communism against the backdrop of American landscape, Unyimeabasi Udoh’s series of ephemeral photographs Topographic representation of: which conflate familial Nigerian, British and American histories into a layered recounting of the punitive expedition of Arochukwu, and Yasmeen Nematt Alla’s Culture Tablets which play with the impossibility of the production of “culture pills” that allow for a daily dose of easy cultural assimilation.

Please join us March 31st for two virtual artist talks, times to be announced.

COVID-19 vaccination proof requirements have expanded to include younger children and to require full vaccination:

Children: Children ages 5 to 11 are now required to have proof of vaccination for the public indoor activities. They must show they have received at least one dose of a vaccine.

Full Vaccination: People 12 and older participating in public indoor activities are now required to show proof they have received two vaccine doses, except for those who have received the one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Starting January 29, 2022, children ages 5 to 11 must also show proof of full vaccination.

Masking, social distancing, hand washing, temperature check and exposure questionaire will be strictly enforced.