(Un)Natural Boundaries and Borders

Silverwood Park invited artists to submit work that reflects the impact of natural or unnatural boundaries and borders and how they define our relationship to the natural world and each other. Boundaries separate land, water, and sky. They can create a sense of place, security, and identity. For example, lines, borders, or boundaries separate us physically and culturally from one another, limit or prevent movement and migration, and establish control or ownership of natural resources. Whether boundaries are physical, political, economic, social, or cultural, they shape who we are and how we experience the world. 

Artists

• Janet Ballweg 
• Sarah Bielski 
• Cynthia Brannvall 
• Keith Buswell 
• Marcy Chevali 
• Julia Coash 
• Renee Couture 
• Laura De Valencia 
• Ilknur Demirkoparan 
• Marcus DeSieno 
• Beth Dow 
• Myk Eff 
• Chris Faust 
• Lisa Gordillo 
• Maggie Gourlay  
• Margi Grill 
• Karen Kraco 
• Samantha Leopold-Sullivan 
• Elyse Lodermeier 
• Anthony Heinz May 
• John Pearson 
• Samantha Resendez 
• John Schuerman 
• Joel Sherry 
• Susan Solomon 
• Erika Terwilliger 
• Wanda Waldera

Juror’s Statement by Katayoun Amjadi
"Reviewing entries for (Un)Natural Boundaries and Borders felt like taking the pulse of our times in all of its vibrant, messy complexity. While much of the work read with clarity and singular intent, I was also looking for work that was nuanced, layered with multiple readings, complicated and resisting ready interpretation; work that would hold me a little longer as if keeping secrets. It did not disappoint.  

Boundaries and borders were manifest in questions of self, other or shared humanity, the body as identity or coupled in relationship, or as the charged space between life and death. They were presented as the hard edge or permeable veil, durable or vulnerable, transformative or constant, or the precarious juncture of safety and surveillance, or how the certain cartography of maps fails to speak truth to the immigrant at the gate; or how a boundary can be invisible yet understood.

Within all of this work, I looked for craftsmanship and the quality of presentation, the creative voice, the provocative insight, and thinking/writing commensurate with the work in the artist’s statement.

Ultimately this process revealed its own rather unnatural boundary: those that were in, and those that were out. Trust me that selecting a few dozen works from a field of nearly 600 was tremendously difficult. To those on the outside please accept my humble apologies, and to all who submitted work, in or out, thank you. It’s an honor to share in your vision of our world." 

Gallery Hours
The gallery is open daily from 9 am - 5 pm through November 30, 2021

About the Juror
Katayoun Amjadi is an Iranian-born, Minneapolis-based artist, educator, and independent curator. In her work, she often considers the social systems that continually construct the binaries which shape our perceptions of Self and Other, such as religion, gender, politics, and nationalist ideologies. Katayoun is interested in blurring these boundaries and create a balanced hybrid style both in life and art. Her art is an attempt to understand the relationship between past and present, tradition and modernity, and individual versus collective identity, as well as to spur discussion about our understanding of time and the tangled roots of our histories.   

She holds an MFA in Ceramics and Sculpture from the University of Minnesota and currently teaches as a faculty of art at Normandale Community College. Her work has been exhibited in several group and solo exhibitions nationally and internationally, including Minnesota Museum of American Arts, Rochester Art Center, Weisman Art Museum, South Dakota Museum of Art, Soap Factory, Saint Thomas University, Public Functionary, Beijing Film Academy, Karlsruhe Art Academy and 7Samar Gallery in Tehran. Katayoun is a 20/21 MCAD-Jerome Emerging Artist Fellow and recipient of the Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board for fiscal years 2015 and 2019.  

Image: Karen Kraco, Back of the Beach, Archival Inkjet Print, 12” x 18", 2017