“I’m not the motherland. I’m not a landscape. I’m framing this conversation. I’m not a flower. I’m only here to work,” declares a woman whose monologue acts as the soundtrack to video documentation of performances from 2017 by artist Joiri Minaya. In these succinct phrases, the female narrator demarcates herself from landscape or nature, her speech layered over footage of women in tropical print bodysuits. The woman’s refusal of identities which connect the feminine to the landscape is emblematic of Minaya’s exploration of the female subject, in particular the construction of the tropical woman.
Minaya’s new exhibition, curated by Corrine Y. Gordon, features recent additions to the artist’s ongoing “Containers” series that began in 2015. In striking, large-format digital prints, female models, or the artist herself, pose in custom-made bodysuits created with fabrics featuring bright tropical patterns. These patterns absorb each model’s entire figure with the exception of her eyes, which gaze out directly at the viewer; the pattern acts as a container for the model’s body. Minaya’s bodysuits clash with the surrounding manicured landscapes as in Container #4 (2020). This contrast is amplified in the case of several prints which themselves are mounted onto large blocks of patterned fabric. Container #6 (2020) depicts a feminine figure seated at the beach. Her arms and legs are encased in a wavy turquoise-and-brown pattern while a blue-gray wave washes around the lower half of her body. This photograph hangs in front of cerulean fabric overlaid with repeating icons: islands, pink flowers, palm trees, and volcanos.
