Invasive Ideologies, Transgressive Systems

“Elizabeth Velazquez’s Invasive Ideologies, Transgressive Systems incorporates mugwort, bittersweet roots, and wineberry- all plant varieties considered non-native to New York City and invasive- into a large, collapsing grid structure rounded off into a 12’ circle. Engaging with the specificity of our physical and temporal orientation to the ground as a site of terrestrial, celestial, and spiritual negotiation, Velazquez considers the grid, a distinctively human expression of structure and order, and the territories of native peoples violated by the invasive footprint of colonization as well as contemporary concerns regarding territory and migration. Through her exploration of roundness, Velazquez softens these rigid barriers in an effort to soften hard edges of brittle ideologies.”

– Ashley Chapman, curator of Transgressing Lands: Eleven Contemporary Artists Reimagine A Horizon, The Boiler, Brooklyn, NY