Critical Geography is a subdiscipline of geography that questions and challenges power structures, inequality and the dominant ideologies shaping physical space. This year, Critical Geography lend its name to FotoFest Biennial, a platform for photographers by Houston-based contemporary arts organisation. The fair features works by more than 20 artists that explore how communities and environments are influenced by social, ecological and other systematic forces. The following list collates creative projects that provoke conversations around social justice, sustainability and transformative change.
M贸nica Alc谩zar-Duarte,聽Nepantla, 2023-2024
The possibility of colonising Mars in the future is a much-discussed topic, and it also inspired the project of Mexican-British artist M贸nica Alc谩zar-Duarte (b. 1977). Her film, Nepantla (2023鈥24) compares the colonisation of South America to the future settlement on the Red Planet. The project draws on the concept of ‘Nepantla’, an ancient term from the N谩huatl language, often cited in Chicano and Latino anthropology. As the artist explains, “Nepantla refers to a state of in-betweenness鈥 a spatial concept of 鈥榖eing in-the-middle of it鈥, like in the eye of the storm. And this work emerges from an absence or a recognition of earth lessness in me.” Alc谩zar-Duarte is a former Aesthetica Art Prize finalist, interested in western society鈥檚 obsession with expansion, speed and the tendency for resource accumulation. Her images acknowledge her indigenous heritage whilst exploring current ideals of progress.
Adrian L. Burrell, Modernity Blues, 2022
Adrian L. Burrell (b. 1990) is an Oakland-based artist who uses photography, film and site-specific installation to encourage moments of collective storytelling and memory-sharing. Modernity Blues derives from Burell鈥檚 2022 Sugarcane and Lightning series which, according to the artist, 鈥渋s a mixtape of Black life and American history from a familial perspective. It is about messages to the future, reparations, inheritance and initiation. It is about the blackening of the world, revenge, the fugitive, movement and the stories we tell ourselves about who we are, and where we come from.鈥 Burrell鈥檚 projects aim to challenge the practice of erasure and explore the history that Black kinship networks reveal.
Rafael Vilela, Forest Ruins, 2020
The series, Forest Ruins addresses the role of cities in the climate crisis from the perspective of the Guarani Mby谩 Indigenous people in the city of S茫o Paulo, Brazil. Photographer Rafael Vilela鈥檚 ongoing project speaks of how their culture, traditions and philosophy offer alternative paths of existence and resist colonial definitions and narratives. Vilela鈥檚 pictures highlight the everyday life of 700 Mby谩 Indigenous people, whose villages are located on the edge of the continent鈥檚 largest city. The series is a provoking reminder for viewers to rethink western consumption habits. It also shows the state of preservation areas as the environment in which these inhabitants live slowly degrades.
Brad Temkin, No Name Sag Pipe Crossing Aqueduct 1, 2022
鈥淯rbanisation has a long history of money and politics influencing water policy in the west, and Los Angeles is a prime example of this,鈥 says Brad Temkin (b. 1956), whose series Aqueducts examines several reservoirs and dams between the Owens Valley and the city of Los Angeles. The pictures zoom in on power stations, industrial sites and crossroads between 鈥渃ivilisation鈥 and the environment to examine the changing topography. These vast wide-angle views forecast a future when untouched natural areas will completely disappear. Temkin鈥檚 work is held in numerous permanent collections, including The Art Institute Of Chicago, Milwaukee Art Museum, and Houston鈥檚 Museum Of Fine Arts. He has been documenting humanity鈥檚 impact on nature since 2009.
C. Rose Smith,聽Talking Back to Power, 2024
Alongside acclaimed visual artists such as Dawoud Bey (b. 1953) and Omar Victor Diop (b. 1980) C. Rose Smith (b. 1995) uses the camera to propose a re-appraisal of Black histories. Smith examines the role of images in constructing layers of identity and individuality. Her series Talking Back to Power (2024) was completed at former plantation sites throughout the Southern United States. The pictures examine how the past informs the present whilst critiquing social norms. Throughout the series, the artist uses gender fluidity to repudiate histories of colonial dress imposed on the formerly enslaved, as well as to examine contemporary attitudes surrounding gender expression.
| FotoFest Biennial 2024, Houston | 9 March – 21 April
Image credits:
1. J煤liaPont茅s, 脫MinasGerais|My Land Our Landscape #29 (dry season),2016.From the series 脫 Minas Gerais|My Land Our Landscape,2015鈥23 Archival inkjet print. Courtesy of the artist.
2. M贸nica Alc谩zar-Duarte, Nepantla-U K’ux Kaj (detail), 2023鈥24. Multichannel video installation, photography with overlaid handmade drawing, acrylic, and film storyboard sketch drawing. Courtesy of the artist.
3. Adrian L. Burrell, Modernity Blues, Loreauville, LA, 2022. Archival inkjet print. From the series Sugarcane and Lighting, 2012鈥. Courtesy of the artist.
4. Rafael Vilela, Forest Ruins, 2020. From the series Forest Ruins, 2020鈥24. Archival inkjet print on Dibond. Courtesy of the artist.
5. Brad Temkin, No Name Sag Pipe Crossing Aqueduct 1 鈥 _Alabama Hills, CA, 2021. From the series Aqueduct, 2021鈥. Archival inkjet print on Dibond. Courtesy of the artist and Stephen Daiter Gallery, Chicago, IL.
6. Un+tled no.19鈥揝avannah Co7on Exchange 1,(2022)From the seriesScenes of Self: Redressing Patriarchy,2022鈥揙ngoin
