Cristina Molina and Jonathan Traviesa
September 9th - October 7th 2023
Artist Talk and Reception Saturday September 9th 6-9 pm
Under the Highlands
Set in the very near future, the installation proposes a time when Florida is nearly under water except for the Highlands. In times of environmental shipwreck, the artists imagine this layered topography as the last inhabitable plane, a scorched island where ancient species continue to thrive and evidence of the past are inscribed in limestone.
This photo-based exhibition by Cristina Molina and Jonathan Traviesa concentrates on the geologic phenomena of the Floridian Lake Wales Ridge. Historically known as the highest elevation in Florida, this landmass has maintained some of the rarest plant specimen on the planet due to its arid landscape and proximity to the sea.
Video of a performance by the artists from the opening:
BIO
Florida natives Cristina Molina (b. 1985) and Jonathan Traviesa (b. 1976) are lens-based artists who live in New Orleans and often collaborate on exhibitions about disappearing landscapes. Their ongoing site-specific exhibition Sad Tropics focuses on the psychological landscape of paradise, the tropics, and more specifically—the mythology of Florida.
Sad Tropics has been exhibited at The Front in New Orleans, The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, Tempus Projects Tampa, The Polk Museum in Lakeland, FL, Cultivate Art Space in Grand Rapids, Syros International Film Festival, and was listed by publications Burnaway and Art in America as one of the top exhibitions of the year in 2016.
Work from Sad Tropics has been supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and included in publications such as CAA’s New Media Caucus, South of the South, and Lens Scratch. Molina and Traviesa work as art professors at Tulane University and Southeastern Louisiana University, respectively.
Currently their artwork focuses on the history of the Earth’s phenomena as inscribed by geologic material such as limestone and ancient botanical species.
WEB
cristinamolina.com
jonathantraviesaphoto.com
Pricing and further documentation available on request. To purchase work, contact gallery@yeswecannibal.org. All work is copyright of the artist(s) 2023.
