“PLUCK” - Residency at Peace Lily Press and MicroFarm

For details, visit peacelilypress.com

Residency Statement

Ecosystems are on the cusp of breaking. Communities are adapting to meet ever increasing needs, yet natural disasters are ever present in rural, suburban, and urban neighborhoods. 

Briana Miyoko Stanley’s art practice visually articulates connections between gravity, rupture, and the negotiation of vulnerable ecosystems that shift society. These shifts are visually represented with tense thread that both suspends and undoes her drawing installations.

It is with the polluted surface, obscured mark, and liquid imagery of delicate to metal-esque treated paper that Stanley sees a conversation with the resilient moxie and “pluck” of the Diesel Death Zone in Long Beach, California. Stanley’s installations allude to wallpapered interiors, the industrial complex, native flora, and the Port of Long Beach.

Stanley uses a diverse array of materials - gouache, charcoal, and ink coated watercolor paper for their malleable neutrality. These materials are steeped like tea, scraped across the surface, and layered to leave obscured impressions. For contextual charge, she uses site specific materials such as plants, dirt, light, and shadow as mark making tools and locally sourced pigmentation.

The result is a blended, broken, and stitched back together map of the surrounding landscape.