Thursday, September 19, 2024

Cali M. Banks: I’ve Learned to Hold Myself Softly
Everson Museum of Art

Everson Museum of Art
401 Harrison St., Syracuse

Cali M. Banks, whose ancestors are both Munsee Lenape and Scottish, recently returned to Syracuse, where she was born and raised. As an artist, Banks has long embraced photography as her medium of choice. Rather than embracing photography's objective or journalistic qualities, Banks seeks to personalize her work through a combination of alchemical processes and labor-intensive embellishment. The result is a body of work that balances nostalgia, loss, identity, longing, and a sense of community.

"I've Learned to Hold Myself Softly" utilizes self-portraiture, still-lifes, and architecture to examine Banks' return to Syracuse. Many of the places that she had found solace in as a youth have now been demolished, abandoned, or gentrified. "I've Learned to Hold Myself Softly" funnels the emotions associated with loss and change into works that reflect the conflicting realities and collateral damage that stem from the rapid changes Syracuse has undergone during the past decade.