March 16 – May 21, 2017
Slow Art Day Workshop Saturday, April 8, 4–5 pm
Immediately following the workshop, a reception and artist talk will begin at 5:30 pm
The works featured in IROKO: Tree of Life/Árbol de Vida drew on the importance of the sacred Tree of Life in African and other cultures around the world. Known as Iroko to the Yoruba people of West Africa, the Tree of Life contains great symbolic, spiritual, mythological, medicinal, magical, commercial, ecological and aesthetic import. Using both traditional and non-traditional media, Ms. Arroyo explores “the marvelous power of nature,” ancient myths of creation, fertility, and spirituality, as well as our relationship to the environment and the challenges of climate change.
The exhibition examined the inter-relationships between our outer, physical ecological situation; our awareness of the sacred in creation; and our inner relationship to the symbolic world of the soul. Ms. Arroyo’s intent was to promote art that expressed this complex, diverse, and dynamic intersection, while seeking to connect the intellectual, spiritual, and practical components of community building and sustainability.
During the workshop Ms. Arroyo included screenings of new video work. The videos were created in collaboration with graphic and digital media artist, Tao Chen, and video producer, Jaime Gomez. The video included interviews of the Katanzama Indigenous people of Colombia by Jaime Gomez and videographer Julio Charris, as well as traditional Yoruba Orisha songs sung by Amma McKen, Iya Ola and Swahili Henry and a new dance performed by Sinque Tavares and choreographer Alycia Bright-Holland. Additional information about all three exhibitions and Ms. Arroyo can be found at: www.imnaarroyo.com
The exhibition at the Clare Gallery was one of three that presented Ms. Arroyo’s work in Connecticut during the spring and summer months of 2017. The other exhibits are: IROKO: Home of the Ancestors/La Casa de los Ancestros, at the Charter Oak Cultural Center in Hartford, CT (March 23 through May 6, 2017) and IROKO: Home of the Gods/La Casa de las Orichas, at MS17 Art Project Gallery in New London, CT (April 22 through July 1, 2017).
