Metonym, a new series of paintings by Nadir Souirgi, challenges human positionality in relation to other animal realms through disorientation, interweaving, and framing. Souirgi’s work ranges from moments of ludic evolutionary force in Pink Light, where the background creates a levity to a scene that could otherwise be interpreted as simply agonizing, to moments of upturned abstraction which upon further examination reveal a code of phantom spaces and faces as in Carnival. In Face, the most abstract of the works, texture becomes so central that it feels like a topographical map of sorts. The preponderance of yellows and greens evoke a natural setting but because we are zoomed in on something that seems to have been fractured and because of the appearance of a reddish emanating mound, there is something territorial, even militarized, about this combination of colors and scratchings. One can’t help but think of contamination, radar, abuse of land use and the demarcation of public green spaces, even testing sites. Upon zooming out further, you notice that all along there has been a skull embedded into the composition. Throughout all of these paintings, one encounters matter and lines that hover between a multiplicity of states and possibilities—the figurative is also notational, the allegorical is also calligraphical, what begins as a plant might stretch into a vein. And so the viewer participates as decoder, surveyor, and even facilitator in a synthesis more similar to a tainted simulation of natural habitats than the habitats themselves. The color pink provides a subtle signaling to the delicate boundary between domestic life and the wild, turning the spotlight of who is implicated in the web of ecological devastation onto those most comfortable and able to move through saccharine spaces of celebration, leisure, and fun. Things rooted in the ground might be falling over us.
According to a recent report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the city of Miami has the largest population vulnerable to sea-level rise in the Western Hemisphere, yet it’s situated in a state where, until recently, government officials had been forbidden from using the words “climate change.” To address Miami’s precarious future, we must rely on creative approaches developed by the artists from here. Souirgi’s show is presented by WATERPROOF MIAMI, an environmentally-focused partnership between Miami-based arts organizations Bas Fisher Invitational and Bridge Initiative. WATERPROOF MAMI harnesses the power of innovative, temporary public art installations around Miami in order to advocate for meaningful solutions to South Florida’s environmental issues. Each project presents an opportunity for outreach, engagement, and action.