NADA House 2024

Superposition Gallery is proud to present their latest exhibition featuring new photographs by artist Patricia Encarnación. Titled Tracing the Underside: The Epigenetics of Tropicalization, the show will be on view at NADA House 17 on the 2nd Floor at Nolan Park on Governors Island.

Encarnación’s exhibition explores the intricate relationship between Caribbean bodies and landscapes as territories that withhold memories. This project delves into the historical and contemporary implications of tropicalization, employing themes of Afrofuturism and mad studies to interrogate notions of kinship and identity within the African diaspora.

The project employs a photo documentary-style approach, focusing on self-portraits and portraits that highlight adaptation’s resilience and transformative potential. By mimicking positions traditionally associated with the punishment of enslaved individuals — practices that have, disturbingly, been passed down through generations — the installation seeks to reclaim these narratives, challenging the associations with punishment and instead fostering new understandings of identity. This exploration of embodied landscapes seeks to blur the boundaries between self and environment, emphasizing how Caribbean bodies adapt and thrive amid external constraints.

The title is inspired by Édouard Glissant’s assertion that “Our landscape is its own monument: its meaning can only be traced on the underside. It is all history” (Caribbean Discourse, 1989). Central to this inquiry is the scholarship of Krista A. Thompson’s An Eye For The Tropics: Tourism, Photography, and Framing the Caribbean Picturesque, which informs the project’s visual narrative.

By capturing moments of connection between individuals and the landscapes, Tracing the Underside underscores the significance of ancestral memory, revealing how these bonds serve as pathways to understanding one’s heritage.