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PALOMA BARHAUGH-BORDAS

I construct landscapes that situate who I am in relation to where I am. My work, spanning print media, begins with photographs and drawings, often of plants, especially the houseplants that have traveled with me over the past decade, which have grown twisted and gnarled, recording in their own way the geographies we both have occupied. Houseplants provide a link to nature in one’s intimate space, but are at the same time a sort of ecological colonialism. Like my plants, I am connected to my origins even in a foreign land, a fact which may only be visible to those who look like me or share my experience.

I hold a deep belief in process, in finding by doing. This philosophy contrasts with the methodical planning and sometimes rote procedure for producing an image from a matrix. I use print media to investigate and inform the meaning and purpose of my serial works, which are full of repeated symbols, definitively graphic marks, and a flip-flop of translations from paper to press and back. Rather than creating multiples from a single image, I work in series and reproduce imagery and symbols across multiple prints.

A recent series, called Transplant, shows ecologically illogical comparisons, setting mismatched plants and horizons within hints of architectural framing. The overall effect is of land that cannot be located. This work emerges from the impulse to tell a story connecting my personal path and purpose to my family history. I am a first-generation Latinx American, raised by women who are survivors, providers, and experts in assimilation, with complex interpersonal relationships. Our shared history has influenced my education, work, opportunities, and continual search for a homeland, and my work shows our tradition of making a home by connecting with the land and growth.