Through softly textured 16mm photography and regional iconography, Silva offers a modernist reflection on two of upstate New York’s most storied 19th century touchstones—the landscape painters of the Hudson River School and the legend of Rip Van Winkle—nodding to a few musical heroes along the way.

Ride Like Lightning, Crash Like Thunder

Street scenes from Salvador, Brazil and Harlem, New York.

Many Thousands Gone

Shot in Hudson NY and Accompong, Jamaica. Accompong, Jamaica was founded in 1739 after rebel slaves and their descendants fought a protracted war with the British leading to the establishment of a treaty between the two sides. The treaty signed under British governor Edward Trelawny granted Cudjoe’s Maroons 1500 acres of land between their strongholds of Trelawny Town and Accompong in the Cockpits and a certain amount of political autonomy and economic freedoms.Cudjoe, a leader of the Maroons, is said to have united the Maroons in their fight for autonomy under the Kindah Tree—a large, ancient mango tree that is still standing.

Kindah

Shot in Detroit and Windsor, Fluid Frontiers is the culmination of Ephraim Asili's project exploring the artist's relationship with the African Diaspora, structured around unrehearsed readings of poems originally published by the Detroit-based Broadside Press.