Artist-in-residence Bahar Behbahani's "Immigrant Flora: Rising Under" is a site-specific wall drawing executed over the course of two weeks in January and February of 2022 with the help of a research cohort consisting of four Ursinus students--Kristen Cooney, Sarah Marchione, Nina Rosario, and Mekha Varghese. In this video we hear Sarah Marchione's perspective working on the exhibition. As an astrophysics and studio art double major, Sarah brought a unique research perspective to the piece, exploring what it means to feel the body connected to the natural rhythms of not just the earth, but our universe as well.
"Immigrant Flora: Rising Under" explores intersections of science, commerce, and the politics of botany to theorize contemporary cultures of immigration and displacement. Drawing on Behbahani's research on Persian gardens and the history of seed trading along the Silk Road, Behbahani worked with Ursinus students to investigate indigenous and invasive local plants, which informed the imagery for the wall drawing executed in ink and lapis lazuli (a semi-precious stone prized for its vivid hue). In Behbahani’s work, plants serve as surrogates for exiled, displaced, or immigrant communities, and bear witness to border crossings, both literal and figurative.
For exhibition information and more please visit our website! Like and subscribe to see more behind the scenes footage of the making of "Immigrant Flora!"
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Filmed by Tommy Armstrong '20
Edited by Teddi Caputo '18
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W E B S I T E: ursinus.edu/berman
I N S T A G R A M: @bermanmuseum
