Mind of Winter 

Solo Exhibition 
January 20 - March 25, 2023
The Print Center, Philadelphia, PA
Free and open to the public
Hours: 11:00 AM - 6:00 PM ♦ Tuesday - Saturday

The centerpiece of the exhibition is the handmade book, Marisma, the Spanish word for estuary – a turbulent and transitional marine environment that nevertheless supports some of the most diverse and productive ecosystems in the world. For Vasquez-Achury, this ecological metaphor helps to convey her experience as a Colombian-born woman, mother and artist living in Philadelphia. She describes this project as existing in the liminal spaces between cultures and nationalities, and between physical locations and imagined or represented spaces, where she has built a sense of place, home and identity.

Idalia Vasquez-Achury has titled her exhibition the Mind of Winter after the essay “Reflections on Exile” by the postcolonial theorist Edward Said, in which he considers how immigrant artists might use the feeling of dislocation to their advantage. Said proposes that the lived experience of more than one culture creates a plurality of vision and a clarity of perspective that he terms a “mind of winter,” quoting poet Wallace Stevens. Using both digital and film cameras, Vasquez-Achury blends fact and fiction in her work with a mix of street and documentary photography, performance and installation, creating metaphors for the complex experiences of immigrants and mothers.