Joiri Minaya: Venus Flytrap

BlackStar presents a site-specific, newly commissioned performance series and installation at Bartram’s Garden, from artist Joiri Minaya. Curated by writer and editor Dessane Lopez Cassell, the series will reflect on the intertwined legacies of freedom, extraction, and ecology in North America’s oldest surviving botanical garden.

Much like a Venus flytrap, the plant this project is named for, Joiri Minaya’s practice often employs beauty before its bite, utilizing sensuality, lush florals and hues to invite deeper reflection on thornier aspects of history and the impacts of colonialism. For this project, Minaya will craft a four-day performance series, custom textile elements, and a summer-long installation informed by the rich history of Bartram’s Garden.

Established in 1728, Bartram’s Garden is the oldest surviving botanical garden in North America, and consequently encapsulates the complexities of Philadelphia’s history and our relationships with land. From its earliest uses as a hub for Indigenous trade to the role of founder John Bartram in popularizing Eurocentric notions of “modern botany,” Bartram’s Garden can be understood as a microcosm for the ongoing colonial experiment. With Venus Flytrap, Minaya extends her longrunning interest in foregrounding the histories and possibilities of local and Indigenous plant life. Together, Minaya and Cassell seek to reveal hidden histories of labor and anti-colonial resistance buried in the grounds of Bartram’s Garden and historic Kingsessing, and their echoes across the Americas.