Author: Meghan Siegler

Multimedia art exhibition gives voices to immigrants

Pieces of New Hampshire immigrants’ stories are being expressed through images and written and spoken words in Kimball Jenkins’ latest exhibition, “Finding Home: Photos, Artwork, Stories & Voices of Immigrants.”

“We are making spaces to intentionally hold a diverse and inclusive [selection of artwork],” said Yasamin Safarzadeh, Kimball Jenkins Programming Coordinator. “[We want] to make spaces for people who have been historically marginalized.”

“Finding Home” is two separate but complementary exhibits. One, located in the Carriage House Gallery, contains Concord photographer Becky Field’s work. She has been capturing the journeys of local immigrants for about a decade — ever since she heard about four immigrant families whose Concord homes were graffitied.

“It made me very mad that we would treat somebody like that. … They encountered anger and hate right here in Concord,” Field said. “We should welcome them and we should recognize how much they add to our community.”

To better understand these immigrants, Field started what she expected to be a temporary project, capturing their images and listening to their stories.

“I thought I would do it for a year and then I’d go back to photographing butterflies,” she said.

Instead she published her first book of photographs and filled it with what she calls “journey stories,” which gave her subjects an outlet to share what life was like in their home countries and why they came to New Hampshire.

“I made sure the words were the words of the immigrants — I’m not the immigrant, and I’m not the one who went through it,” she said. “People came for all kinds of reasons; some came for education, some came for job opportunities and some came because they fell in love with an American.”

After that book was released, Field kept going. She just released her second book on which the Kimball Jenkins exhibition is based, Finding Home: Portraits and Memories of Immigrants. Her exhibit in the Carriage House Gallery includes large framed portraits of immigrants, a story panel with an excerpt from their journey story, and a QR code that will allow viewers to download an mp4 audio file and listen to a sound bite of the immigrant telling their story.

Field is very aware that her perspective is still one of an outsider.

“What I show is the view of a photographer [seeing] immigration and diversity in our communities … and that’s my truth, that’s my story,” she said.

But she wanted another voice in this exhibition, and that’s where the second exhibit comes in. Located in the Victorian Mansion Gallery, it contains the work of fine art painter Jozimar Matimano, who came to New Hampshire from Uganda about six years ago through the refugee resettlement program with the International Institute of New England.

“It’s about what immigrants are trying to contribute, their voices,” Matimano said of his artwork, which comprises mainly portraits. “We have the perspective that we can try to contribute to the society. We appreciate things in America, our new home.”

Field has been working with Matimano for years, in part to help him be the model for his own paintings; he’ll set up scenes in his family’s Manchester apartment, Field will photograph him, and he’ll use those photos as inspiration for his paintings.

“Art is a powerful tool that can spark something in someone’s life and change the course of history,” said Matimano, who is studying fine art at the Institute of Art at New England College.

It’s important to him, he said, that people can look at his art and form their own opinions or connect to it in some way.

“Different people have different ways of looking at things,” he said. “I leave it to the audience to relate it to what’s going on in their lives … and appreciate the beauty. … “It’s not like every [work of] art is political.”

Another part of Matimano’s exhibit includes handcrafted goods that were made by people living at Promise Hub in the refugee camp in Uganda where he used to live.

“They want to put their voices out there, and their craftsmanship, [while] making a little bit of money,” Matimano said. “It’s another way of trying to empower youth [and help them] stay productive and create.”

The purpose of displaying those items isn’t to sell them — those items were gifted to him — but to raise awareness of the Promise Hub and the work they’re doing, he said.

Matimano and Field approached Kimball Jenkins together with the idea for this exhibit.

“We’ve had a wonderful partnership,” Field said of her work with Matimano. “We are both lifting each other up with this double exhibit. … It’s a great privilege on my part to have Jozimar join me.”

“I think the show is really solid,” Safarzadeh said. “I really enjoy these cross-pollinating shows. … A lot of people like to polarize and [these exhibits] meld into each other and uplift each other. … It’s complex and it’s intertwined.”

“Finding Home: Photos, Artwork, Stories & Voices of Immigrants”

Where: Kimball Jenkins, 266 N. Main St., Concord
When: Throughout February and March. An opening reception for both exhibits will be held at Kimball Jenkins on Saturday, Feb. 19, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. and will feature comments by the artists, music and refreshments.
More information: Call 225-3932 or visit kimballjenkins.com.
For more on the artists, visit fieldworkphotos.com and jozimarmatimano.com, or find them on Facebook and Instagram.

Featured Photo: Solidarity, 36”x48” Oil on Canvas by Jozimar Matimano.

Abstract images of nature captured in mixed media collages

Seeing goldenrod, touching tree bark, feeling lichen underfoot — those are the kinds of sensations that Daniela Edstrom is hoping you’ll experience when you walk into her “Expressions: Nature” exhibition.

Currently on display at the Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce, the exhibition is made up of the Allenstown artist’s abstract mixed media collages, which combine digital images with traditional collage done by hand.

“The images aren’t literal,” Edstrom said. “I feel that they let the viewer wonder about what it’s like to be in that place. … I want it to be an experience of revelation and discovery where each time they look at the piece their interest is renewed, [that there’s] a constant visual discovery.”

Edstrom said she enjoys using both collage methods, with the traditional form of collage being more tactile with textured papers and the digital method offering an endless stream of non-copyrighted images that can be printed using archival inks and photographic paper.

“I love the computer,” Edstrom said. “I think it’s a wonderful free method of doing art.”

Edstrom takes her own photos too, finding inspiration close to home.

“I’m often in my yard photographing irises, tulips…,” she said. “I [also] spend a lot of time photographing the gardens around Allenstown. ”

In her neighborhood, Edstrom has photographed century-old lilac bushes, and throughout town she’s taken pictures of stone walls that date back to the colonial period and old passageways through the forests.

“There are paths that people have walked for centuries, or at least a hundred years, through Bear Brook [State Park],” she said. “[I like to capture] man’s presence in nature.”

Edstrom said it can take months to create a collage, often waiting for the right season or the right weather to get a photo that inspires her. She said she typically takes hundreds of photos during the spring and summer — but exploring nature to get those photos is one of her favorite parts of the artistic process.

“It’s very therapeutic, meditative, noticing lichens and mushrooms and looking for tracks of the animals,” she said. “It’s quite poetic.”

Edstrom uses a standard point-and-shoot camera, then downloads the images, combs through them to find the ones that most intrigue her, color-enhances them in Photoshop if she thinks it will add vibrancy to the collage, then prints them and starts working with cut papers.

One of the pieces in her show, “Boppin’ Blossoms,” features a printed photo of an iris.

“Then, inspired by the colors of the iris, I printed colored papers … and collaged them onto the surface, trying to feel the sensation of the flower, the feelings of spring, using color to express emotion,” she said. “I’m fascinated by the emotions that nature is capable of producing in ways that no … technology can.”

A member of the New Hampshire Art Association, graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts of Naples and graduate of the University of New Hampshire with a B.A. in art history, Edstrom has been creating for decades. She has shown her paintings, collages, mixed media and other art in solo, juried and group exhibitions locally, nationally and abroad.

She’s currently working on her next solo show, planned for this summer; “Fantastical Flora” will feature 18×24 mixed media collages. And Edstrom is also trying to get into encaustic art.

“It’s a nice challenge,” she said. “It’s freeing because you can use found objects, found paper … [you can] create from scratch using what is available to you.”

“Expressions: Nature”

Where: The Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce Visitors Center, 49 S. Main St., Suite 104, Concord
When: Now through Feb. 14
Visit: danielaedstrom.com

Featured Photo: Blossoms light Bound. Collage by Daniela Edstrom.Courtesy photo.