Widline Cadet explores how images echo through time and space – ARTnews.com

Widline Cadet remembers playing soccer and catching birds that flocked to a grapefruit tree in her backyard in her hometown, Haiti. But she immigrated to the United States in 2002, at the age of 10, and hasn’t returned to Haiti since 2016. Many of her childhood memories are gone, and she now speaks more English than Creole, her first language. Cadet did her first set of work, the Home Objects photo series, when she received a fellowship to return to Haiti after earning her BA in studio art from City College of New York (she now holds an MA in Fine Art from Syracuse University). But Cadet is not present in both places. She doesn’t know much about her family’s history outside of her grandparents, and she sometimes forgets some English words, betraying her experience as an immigrant.

At first glance, this sounds like a story about displacement. It is partially so. But the Cadets were not only uprooted, but separated from Haiti by time and distance. Her portraits of family, friends, and strangers alike are a reminder of continuity, rebirth, and connection. The checkered gingham pattern and gorgeous infernal bursts in her portraits are echoes of her first country. Cadet also places family portraits, some over two decades old, side by side and inside the new prints, recognizing her position as an observer and participant, both outside and inside. She finds community in other places, including New York, with her friends and fellow artists.

Cadet recently told me via video chat that she loves to shoot in Los Angeles because the terrain reminds her of Hetty. in her work Bougenvilye, ki itilize pou Bote, Vi Prive sou Liy Kloti, ak pwoteksyon Pikan (Bougainvillea, used for beauty, privacy on fence lines, and barbed protection)And In 2019, the pottery vine is embracing a blanket with a person’s handprint. Although no one appears in the picture, there is still a presence. When we leave a place, you imply that we do not disappear completely – we leave traces of ourselves.

Cadet included this photo, along with others featured here, in her first solo exhibition, “Se Sou Ou Mwen Mete Espwa m (I put all my hopes on you)At the Deli Show in New York in 2021. Like snippets of dreams remembered upon waking, small photos of Cadet’s parents, brothers, nieces and nephews appeared throughout the gallery, including two Instax photos tucked into the corner. Cadet snapped some of these photos by herself, while other photographers took other images and plucked them from the family’s collection.Viewing multiple layers of Cadet’s generations—in images placed close to the boundaries of other images and pushed into archaic contexts—helped create a historical timeline that was more cyclical than linear. Sé Sou Ou Mwen Mété Espwa m #3 (I Place All My Hope On You #3), 2021. It is a picture of a corner of a green but ominous plaza, a red sky and distant trees peeking over the pristine white fence that otherwise obscures the view of the background. At the top right of the work is a 4″ x 6″ framed photo of family members happily assembled on an unmade sofa bed. In this work, Cadet presents an almost otherworldly landscape that perfectly encapsulates a small and fleeting moment in her personal history, considering how one’s point of view can magnify or dispel memories and reality.

As a descendant, Cadet is part of a sequence, from her ancestors to herself, that resonates – and reflects again. Her work constantly resonates, sometimes in direct ways. at Jiskaske Enfinite Vini Nan Yon Fen (Until infinity ends)And 2021, the artist is one of three girls in identical powder blue dresses standing at an angle away from the camera and staring into the distance. No Vi Patty, no se, no nose (We belong, we, we are tall), 2020, curved bodies appear on this mixture with each other and in a red and white gingham background, converging in incomprehensible limbs. at Yon Etranje ki pa Sanble Youn #32019, Cadet gently rests her head on the belly of a person whose short hair and relaxed, confident gaze mirror hers.

Even in works that depict people with whom she does not have a close relationship – like those she portrayed in New York City parks for the black and white series “Soft.” (2017-20) – Cadet uses similarity, repetition, entanglement, and intimacy to understand adhesive networks that revolve around lineage, cultural identity, and national identity. There is optimism in her assertion that the passage of time, difference in backgrounds, or thousands of miles of separation does not mean all hope of connection is lost.