Siara Berry
Featured: February 26th, 2025
Reading and research are fundamental to my making process. Although I work from a place of personal experience and observation, I look to literature to contextualize my first-hand accounts; particularly narratives pertaining to property ownership, neighborhoods, domestic life and cultural systems at play. I grew up in a suburb of Milwaukee, so the visual language of suburbia serves as the vehicle for my investigations of place, people and purpose; much of which is supported by the books selected above. From the contrived landscape of the front lawn to the Great Migration, from the democratic ethos of neighborships to the inherent dangers of development, I find meaning in the interconnectedness of it all.
In light of current events and political upheaval, I will leave with this passage by Nancy Rosenblum of Good Neighbor: "Under mistrust-creating conditions neighbors become fearful and withdrawn and must struggle to sustain even rudimentary give and take...We know, too, that the simplest, everyday gestures are precious under extreme conditions. When the quality of life is deranged, ordinary moments of recognition and solicitude assume extraordinary significance.
