In My Hands Are Galaxies is Cyrah Dardas’ solo exhibition (October 14th- November 18th) of work examining ritualized art-making and relational ecosystems that extend beyond human kin. The Opening Reception is on Saturday, October 14th, 6-9pm at 2845 Gratiot Avenue.
This exhibit invites viewers to consider the processes of growing, foraging and engaging with different elements to create the tapestries and watercolor paintings as portals to re-establish our participation in stewarding life and re-belonging to the Earth. Dardas’ practice is a tool for remembering as a way to create an archive for a future of interspecies reciprocity.
Dardas references the tradition of SWANA tapestry-making, symbolism and stylization as a means of keeping the memory of relationships to their ancestral land intact as a framework employed through their practice for being in relationship to this, ‘newer home.’ Using their handmade botanical inks, dyes and watercolors, they created a series of moon studies that demonstrate a deep connection between the land to the sky.
From the artist:
“I make work with earth and for nature; wood, paper, metals, creating botanical inks, dyes and watercolors made from foraged plants, charred willow bark, ochres, ash and stone. I consider this process as an interspecies communion that deeply informs the form and function the work takes. Colors are derived from plants, and the natural textures and materials that nature creates reflect the landscape and identity of the land I exist on.
“I think about my practice as a container for collective remembering that strives to honor and re-centralize the wisdom and memory alive in my blood and to uncover or recover forgotten knowledge. This body of work examines tapestry-making as a healing technology that re-establishes forgotten networks of relationship between humans and non-human life.”
The exhibition includes a short film entitled, “To Each of Those, The Ones Who Leave,” made in collaboration with artist Na Forest Lim. It is an archive of a site-specific practice in the backyard of a former home. Cyrah began to process their experience of displacement as a result of familial and intimate partner violence to articulate healing through a somatic relating to Earth and place to find ‘home’ through an experiential and relational movement-based learning. Their practice is deeply rooted in ritualized art-making, using the process itself as a tool for grief composition and collective healing.
OPENING RECEPTION: In My Hands Are Galaxies Solo Exhibition opens to the public on Saturday, October 14th from 6-9pm, and is on view through Saturday, November 18th, located at 2845 Gratiot Avenue, Detroit, MI 48207. No RSVP is required to attend.
Cyrah Dardas is a Queer, eco-feminist artist and care worker living in Detroit /Waawiyaatanong, Anishinaabe territory. Dardas uses their art practice as a tool in remembering the lost relationships between humans and non-human beings as a result of the extractive nature of capitalism by regulating and healing our collective body to restore interdependency.
Their work is informed by experiences in childcare, gardening, as a member of an artist cooperative, Portal For and practice of using natural fibers, earth pigments, and botanical inks. They are a recipient of the Emerging Artist Fellowship, supported by the Knight Foundation.
“I use my art practice as a portal and process of regulation and healing for myself from these systems, and offer it to others through ceremony to restore our collective ecological body and return to interdependence. This guiding philosophy of ecofeminism, leads me to an interdisciplinary practice that observes, engages and celebrates life in its various phases and forms.
My work is an archive of continual search and discovery, a somatic remembering, a way of engaging in and relating to the world, and a practice of composting grief. I come to this practice as a survivor of intimate partner violence living with PTSD, co-creating frameworks of care and belonging to heal and chart out pathways towards repair for myself and those that engage with my work.”
