Artists without borders: ArtsWestchester tackles migration and identity in new show 

In 2015, ArtsWestchester staged an exhibit supported by the National Endowment for the Arts about art’s relationship to migration. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, a worsening climate crisis, the war in Ukraine and now the Hamas attack on Israel and Israel’s declaration of war, global migration has taken on a new urgency and for artists a new meaning. 

“We’ve shifted our understanding of migration as a dynamic process and life cycle to discourse about social constructs – particularly the concept of borders,” said Edwige Charlot, one of 15 New York artists participating in “Crossing Borders: Revisited” at ArtsWestchester’s Arts Exchange headquarters in White Plains through Jan. 14. “Exploring migration in an art context gives me an opportunity to interact with the inherent fluidity of movement, adaption and imagination.” 

The show, also with NEA support, explores the ways in which geographic and cultural borders have come to define individual and group identities. Featured artists question the meaning of borders while investigating the experience of immigrating and the act of remembering.  Many of these artists seek to connect to their heritage and use art as a way of keeping family legacy relevant as they make their own way in a contemporary time and place. “Crossing Borders: Revisited” also looks at the myriad of ways that we’ve come to this country, some calling it home and some continually traveling. 

 “Crossing Borders” features a roster of artists not previously seen at ArtsWestchester, and three new works by Siona Benjamin, Anina Major and Cheryl Wing-Zi Wong, each commissioned for the exhibit. 

 Anina Major is a visual artist from the Bahamas and a faculty member at Bennington College who engages with ceramic materials as a tool to investigate notions of place and self and to map migrations of traditions and identity. “Ostracons of the Atlantic” is a 25-foot-long installation that occupies the floor of ArtsWestchester’s Grant Banking Room, evoking the ocean’s floor. The accumulated pottery shards help suggest the fragmented history of the Black diaspora as well as the notion that time doesn’t move in one direction but rather ebbs and flows.  

 Comprised of red Good Luck candies, Cheryl Wing-Zi Wong’s “Lucky Illumination” chandelier references the dim sum parlors and banquet halls that are slowly disappearing across post-pandemic Chinatowns. As an artist and a trained architect, Wing-Zi Wong’s practice explores how spaces are shared and how they change over time.  

As a self-identified transcultural artist, Siona Benjamin creates painting and sculpture, often using blue-skinned characters to depict social issues, including immigration. For “Crossing Borders,” Benjamin has created “Parachute Lillith,” a sculptural installation that reflects her experience being raised Jewish in India, which is a predominately Hindu and Muslim country. The piece features a female figure referencing the Jewish Midrashic legend of Lilith, or the “First Eve,” who appears to be parachuting into the gallery. Video projections and the parachute itself become symbols of her travelog and mythology. 

As ArtsWestchester’s Chief Operating Officer Kathleen Reckling observed: “While each artist in the exhibition has their own unique story, the themes expressed through their work transcend the individual and speak to a universal experience of remembering where we came from while navigating new territory and customs. Taken together, these works are a reminder that tradition and culture are not static. Rather they are ever evolving and ever adapting.” 

Added Adam Chau, ArtsWestchester exhibition manager and “Crossing Borders” curator: “The invention of the border has caused so much public discourse that we are in need of artists to shed light on how our borders drastically influence culture and livelihood. ‘Crossing Borders’ is a beacon to showcase the complexities of 21st century migration through identity, memory and place-making.” 

Participating artists are Anina Major, Kiani Ferris, Natalia Arbelaez, Rae Stern, Romina Gonzales, Siona Benjamin, Tomoko Abe, Cheryl Wing-Zi Wong, Miguel Braceli, Sin Ying Ho, Edwige Charlot, Baseera Khan (courtesy Wave Pool Gallery), Salvador Jimenez Flores, Simone Couto and Linda Sok. 

“Crossing Borders” is on view at the ArtsWestchester Gallery at 31 Mamaroneck Ave. through Jan. 14. Hours are noon to 5 p.m. Sundays and Wednesdays through Fridays and noon to 6 p.m. Saturdays. For more, visit artswestchester.org.