Reconstructed

By Elin Spring

Amidst our raging, divisive culture wars, it is deeply gratifying to feast eyes on images that aspire to a sense of belonging. Photographer Yorgos Efthymiadis has gathered five photographers with immigrant stories that bridge cultures, attempting to reconcile their sense of homeland and family history with the considerable challenges of assimilation in an America often hostile to aliens. In “Reconstructed,” Astrid Reischwitz, Eleonora Ronconi, Hugo Teixeira, Iaritza Menjivar, and exhibit curator Yorgos Efthymiadis explore divergent personal narratives regarding origins and home at the FPAC Gallery in Boston’s Fort Point, on view through June 4^th, 2022.

Feature Image: “Antennas” 2018, from the series There Is a Place I Want to Take You by Yorgos Efthymiadis, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.

Yorgos Efthymiadis, originally from Greece, and Hugo Teixeira, originally from Portugal, employ landscape as a metaphor in their images. In the series There Is a Place I Want to Take You, Efthymiadis’s style is deceptively documentary. His elegant compositions frame buildings and outdoor spaces in his homeland with imbedded clues to the absent people who inhabit them. Portals into unknown homes and gardens and crowds of antennas atop densely populated urban dwellings – without a soul in sight – divulge an aching for belonging. In this installation, Efthymiadis combines his softly-lit images into multiple panel narratives, compounding and accentuating the sense of a soul out of place, at once mourning and celebrating the beauty of vistas lost to his emigration.

“Portals” 2017, from the series There Is a Place I Want to Take You by Yorgos Efthymiadis, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.

“Chaparral C” 2022, inkjet prints on plywood, steel fasteners, wooden clamps, from the series Dog Days on the Chaparral by Hugo Teixeira, courtesy of the artist. (Installation photograph by Suzanne Révy)

In his series Dog Days on the Chaparral and Impenetrable Labyrinths, Hugo Teixeira alternates images of the California chaparral and Portuguese montado, crafting sculptures that depict imaginary, blended landscapes. By compressing his homeland and adopted land into integrated fantasies, Teixeira describes an untenable, though commonplace, desire of immigrants to synthesize disparate cultures. His tight, vertical compositions imply unscalable heights, many pierced by an inroad of uncertain destination. The layering of searing, stark geographies escalates a palpable sense of angst, endowing Teixeira’s landscapes with energy and pathos.

“Salmon River Canyon” 2021, inkjet prints on PVC from the series Impenetrable Labyrinths by Hugo Teixeira, courtesy of the artist.

“Shadow and Light” 2019, archival pigment print with hand-sewn embroidery from the series Spin Club Tapestry by Astrid Reischwitz, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.

The images of Astrid Reischwitz, originally from Germany, and Eleonora Ronconi, originally from Argentina, tap memory as the conveyor of their immigrant stories. In her series Spin Club Tapestry, Reischwitz sews patterns onto her images with needle and thread. They echo those found in the antique textiles woven in “spin clubs” that were held around kitchen tables in the agrarian German community of her ancestors. Using the leitmotif of hand-embroidery, she juxtaposes old photographs of her family and their homestead with images she makes now, patching together the past and present in mellifluous compositions. In bringing the spirit of her ancestors into conversation with her own family, Reischwitz highlights symbols of continuity and divergence.  Dancing with vibrant bursts of floral and geometric patterns, her lyrical compositions merge an obsolescent German lifestyle with a modern American sensibility. Reischwitz’s tapestries ponder the fragmented, mysterious influences that continue to manifest themselves today.

“1st Memory” 2019, archival pigment print with hand-sewn embroidery from the series Spin Club Tapestry by Astrid Reischwitz, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.

“La taza de la nona” 2018, from the series Séras mis ojos by Eleonora Ronconi, courtesy of the artist.

Eleonora Ronconi revisits the touchstones of her childhood in Buenos Aires, Argentina in her series Séras mis ojos (You will be my eyes). Feeling emotionally adrift after relocating to California, Ronconi started returning to her homeland with her camera to photograph places and objects with deep meaning to her. Just as she was embarking on a journey of re-discovery, her aunt was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease and implored Ronconi to see and remember for her, too. As her aunt progressively forgot, Ronconi’s quest re-awakened the “spaces that had been left vacant” in her history and soul. Like a reminiscent aroma wafting on a gentle breeze, Ronconi’s nuanced rendering of light arouses elusive recollections and stirring emotions. With the frailty of transience and the intensity of dreams, the clarity of solid objects and obscurity of memory, Ronconi reconstructs an origin story whose gentle poignancy is mesmerizing.

“La mañana siguiente” 2016, from the series Séras mis ojos by Eleonora Ronconi, courtesy of the artist.

“Wedding Day, Sister and Stepmom” 2019, from the series First Generation by Iaritza Menjivar, courtesy of the artist.

In her series First Generation, Iaritza Menjivar tells an immigrant story from the vantage point of one who was born and raised in America, illuminating the cultural gulf between her peers and those who made the journey here. Even as we see siblings and cousins lost to a variety of electronic screens, Menjivar reveals an acculturation enveloped in familial affection. Where her frames delineate separation, in the form of room partitions or selective focus, she depicts connection through bodily interactions and gestures among her large, extended family.

“Loteria” 2015, from the series First Generation by Iaritza Menjivar, courtesy of the artist.

Interestingly, there are no visual clues to her parents’ El Salvadoran and Guatemalan roots and there are no overt signs of patriotism to the US either. Rather, the abundant signs of allegiance in the older generations are religious, with icons visible around necks, on walls and in cars, while secular memorabilia from Menjivar’s cohort sprouts from the home’s refrigerator and furniture. It appears that faith itself has undergone a translation between generations, from the sacred kind that fueled their immigration to expressions of faith in the American dream. Menjivar’s intimate narrative suggests that the cultural divide between these generations is reconciled through a shared belief in one another.

Installation view of “Reconstructed,” L to R: images by Eleonora Ronconi, Iaritza Menjivar and Hugo Teixeira. Photo courtesy of Yorgos Efthymiadis.

“Reconstructed” casts five enchanting immigrant stories, conversing between gallery walls and across continents. Immigration has always defined our country. This moving exhibit taps into the shared quest for a sense of identity and belonging, wherever and whenever it originated.

For directions, hours, appointments and more information about the exhibit, go to: https://www.fortpointarts.org/programs/galleries/gallery-at-300-summer/

Installation view of “Reconstructed,” L to R: images by Yorgos Efthymiadis, Iaritza Menjivar and Eleonora Ronconi. Photo courtesy of Yorgos Efthymiadis.