Claimed and Reclaimed

Claimed and Reclaimed, AnkhLave Arts Alliance’s annu­al Gar­den Project Fel­low­ship group show, cel­e­brates BIPOC artists who own and rede­fine their cul­tur­al nar­ra­tives. This expres­sion shines in the use of recy­cled and repur­posed mate­ri­als that resist West­ern cen­tered art mak­ing tra­di­tions. Such a ges­ture speaks to the pow­er of sym­bol­i­cal­ly tak­ing land back from col­o­niz­ing forces. Home to the Lenape peo­ple pri­or to Euro­pean con­tact, Gov­er­nors Island has also been a site of Black labor. Black slaves built the for­ti­fi­ca­tions on Gov­er­nors Island; in 1918, an African Amer­i­can Army labor bat­tal­ion was sta­tioned here. 

Today, immi­grants own and staff busi­ness­es and oper­a­tions on the Island. In reclaim­ing this his­tor­i­cal house, AnkhLave artists bring their cre­ations to diverse audi­ences out­side of a West­ern white wall gallery con­text. While the walls in the house may be white, they are decay­ing. Claimed and Reclaimed breathes new life into them. Col­lec­tive­ly, the artists’ palettes draw inspi­ra­tion from the blues, greens, and earth tones that have long col­ored this mar­itime environment.

This exhi­bi­tion fea­tures the works of Kraig Blue (Pub­lic Artist-in-Res­i­dence), Damali Abrams, Corali­na Rodriguez Mey­er, Diego Espail­lat, Xiong Wei, and Chi­hi­ro Ito (AnkhLave Gar­den Project Fel­lows). Curat­ed by Cecil­ia André & Chris­tine Stoddard.

AnkhLave Arts Alliance is one of the 2024 Gov­er­nors Island Arts Orga­ni­za­tions in Res­i­dence.