Join Root Division this January and February for Water is Thicker Than Blood, a new exhibition curated by Rachel Poonsiriwong.
Water is Thicker than Blood explores the complexities of intergenerational and familial traumas alongside pathways to healing. This group exhibition highlights artists whose work has nurtured vulnerable spaces that reflect on emotional, cultural, or geographical rifts.
At its heart, Water is Thicker than Blood investigates the weaving of trauma into domesticity and genealogical systems. On a personal level, the pieces featured in Water is Thicker than Blood carry artists’ intimate expressions of grief, longing, and discomfort. Collectively, this exhibition surfaces the intersectionality of familial rifts and traumas with many immigrant and diasporic experiences. Works in the show aim to acknowledge the shared trauma experienced by many families as a byproduct of institutional failures during the pandemic.
Water is Thicker than Blood is an intermixture of healing practices and a coming-to-terms — each piece a personal insight into an artist’s memory. The show is most fully experienced as a gift, in which viewers honor and reciprocate the vulnerability that each artist has invested into their work. In a similar vein, viewers will have an opportunity to converse with the pieces as gateways for processing and articulating their own intergenerational traumas.