Polyphemia in New England

Description

Polyphemia and and you multiply are companion pieces that are part of a series of works that investigate the colonialist origins of systemic racism and environmental degradation in the place we know as New England, a place once known by other names. By focusing a 21st century lens on the 17th century in this particular place, I hope to open new investigations into the attitudes and policies that have brought our world to the brink of a massive climate crisis and extinction event. James Meyer asked me a question via a work of art: Friend Ally Coworker Other? Polyphemia seeks to answer that question with a female cyclops, my own self portrait with a clock for an eye, silkscreened over a 17th century woodcut map of New England with text from the Wampanoag Bible. As a white woman, some of whose ancestors came on boats with John Winthrop, some of whom came much later, the only answer I have for that question from a person of indigenous descent is that I am a monster, an invasive species.

Other Projects by Deborah Santoro