Archipelago & 365, 2024, installation view at BioBAT Art Space, Brooklyn, New York, 450 concrete bricks, ink and colored pencils on transparent Mylar, watercolors on paper, Plexiglas, found objects, shells, seaweed, branches, found natural materials and objects, used canoe 18 feet long, sound
Archipelago is an ongoing series, it was created in its first modest version in Mexico at Anavy’s solo show: Cultural Exchange Room in Museo de la ciudad de Querétaro (2022), and since then it has continued to grow and developed following Anavy’s continued journey and according to the space and site where it is displayed.
Archipelago, 2024, created from a personal place in response of a huge loss, the work touches on concepts of creation, power alongside fragility, and fragmentary nature.
Archipelago 2024 is an architectural installation portrays how paintings, marine creatures and concrete blocks interact with each other at the cornerstone of urban infrastructure and water supply networks. In Archipelago, Anavy used natural, found objects from the coast of Long Island, where she has done several artist residencies over the recent years. This installation uses materials deeply implicated in ecology, but for the artist, it serve as a visual travel diary that tells her transnational journey. For Anavy, every object and shell she add to this composition carries with it a personal memory.
The installation built from objects found in nature alongside industrial bricks and artificial materials. The floor structure reminiscent construction zone that perhaps symbolizes renewal and on the other hand a distant past – a ruin or an archaeological site. The paintings and the drawings in the installation are taken from different periods and depict abstract images that evoke thought of water alongside more concrete images reminiscent of stones and diamonds – a recurring motif in Anavy’s work over the years.
365 is the work suspended from the ceiling. A used canoe 18 feet long, from which a sound work emanates, recorded by the artist’s daughter on the beach at the foot of the lighthouse in Montauk, New York. The repetitive movement of water over the stones creates a unique sound, reminiscent of muffled applause. This sound captures not only a moment in nature but also a shared family experience during a significant period that later proved to be crucial in both the artist’s and her daughter’s lives.
The artist collected this used canoe from a man who had spent his life sailing with him in the Hudson River. In the installation, the canoe becomes an iconic object, imbued with American history and a personal narrative, yet stripped of its functionality. It floats in the gallery space like a spaceship, suspended above the artist’s dystopian bricks installation. Anavy carefully chose to display this specific canoe, which features the US flag on its bow and is known as a Family Canoe. It thus transforms into a compressed capsule of memory—an ‘immigrant object’ as well as a reflection of the artist’s own biography. The suspended canoe echoes the rhythm of the water, and together with the floor installation, they create a space that embodies an inner landscape.