SF/Arts Curator Insight

Shervone Neckles' "you are the best thing" is an embroidered image of three female figures whose heads have blossomed into neurons. A beaded vein runs through their bodies, connecting their consciousnesses to one another and to the earth, via silicon resistors and gold fringe. This image epitomizes "Under the Waqwaq Tree": Electronically excitable cells, neurons transmit information via specialized connections, and through the research of mostly female scientists we know that trees communicate via complex root networks, sharing important resources for survival. There is a deep knowledge that joins and informs this expansive exhibition of female heavy hitters, each exploring transformation and hybridity through work that contemplates the ghostly and the monstrous.