Islandia Artist-in-Residence
We're proud to present our first Islandia Air: Fola Akinde. Their research-based practice led to Xaragua, a lake in the Dominican Republic experiencing mysterious lake level rise. Read to learn more!
Xaragua is a 14” x 17” screen print (edition of 30) with hand-drawn charcoal elements by Fola Akinde. It features the American Crocodile and Rhinoceros Iguana, two species which populate the historic, folkloric, and mysterious lake—known in Spanish as Lago Enriquillo—called by its Taino name of Xaragua.
PURCHASE YOUR LIMITED EDITION XARAGUA PRINT HERE
Located in the Dominican Republic, the brackish Xaragua is the lowest point in the Caribbean. It’s also the largest lake in the Caribbean. In recent decades, Xaragua has been experiencing mysterious lake level rise. This Vice News documentary helps understand the context.
Xaragua is also full of folklore, history, and ecology. Check out these collected news clippings from over the years.
Islandia Artist-in-Residence
Xaragua was created for the Islandia Artist-in-Residence (Islandia Air) program.
Islandia Air is an annual artist-in-residence program designed to provide resources, materials, and connections to museums and galleries to early-career Miami-based artists whose work deals with Miami's connection to the Caribbean.
We are so excited and proud to introduce Fola Akinde, our first Islandia Air.
Fola Akinde is a Miami-based interdisciplinary artist focused on Black hauntology as it relates to memory, history, and conceptions of liberation. Their Nigerian cultural background has inspired an interest in archives and research related to the Black diaspora, including history and folklore related to Nigeria, the US, and Latin America.
Fola’s work was featured in the Spring Undergraduate Exhibition at SAIC Galleries and was awarded an Ellie from Oolite Arts in 2022. Much of their work is focused on the importance of expanding the idea of what an archive is — its accessibility, and how that documentation can play a role in (re)assemblage of imagery and memory.
Incorporating archival items like found imagery, objects, writings, and ephemera, Fola has reconfigured their own conceptions of narratives, mythology, and illuminate connections to sites and spiritual practices.
Follow Fola on instagram here.
In the first quarter of 2023, Fola set about researching Xaragua and its history. During a fellowship at IS Projects in the Little River neighborhood, Fola set about screen printing an edition of thirty and then finishing the artwork by hand with charcoal.
You can support our fledgling program by purchasing a print or making a donation to Islandia here: