Strand uses local vernaculars and globalized language to perform an exploration of aesthetics that appears across cultures, particularly out of post/neo-colonial conditions of Jamaica and its diaspora: the mythologies of Babylon and Armageddon. She considers what is visible - decor, landscape, architecture as metonyms for what is invisible – ghost and history.
Shani Strand
Yard Chair
Copper pipes, clay, paint, fabric, found metal grids
"As a first-generation American of Jamaican descent, I experiment with concepts that evoke the Caribbean and Jamaica. The notions are individual and intimate. Some are distant and experienced through the nostalgia of family, history, literature, and architecture. These experiences and observations influence my material and theoretical interests. Intrigued by what is visible—decor, landscape, architecture—as a metonymy for what is invisible—ghosts and history. Using sculpture and images, I create objects that fantasize spaces, known and unknown, but inevitable productions of cultural creolization."
— Shani Strand
About the artist
Shani Strand
Strand uses local vernaculars and globalized language to perform an exploration of aesthetics that appears across cultures, particularly out of post/neo-colonial conditions of Jamaica and its diaspora: the mythologies of Babylon and Armageddon. She considers what is visible - decor, landscape, architecture as metonyms for what is invisible – ghost and history.
