ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROAM, 2023
solo exhibtion
Eric Dean Gallery at Wabash College
Crawfordsville, IN
curated by Annie Strader
All Roads Lead to Roam is the latest iteration of Corona’s ongoing project Climate Immigrants (2017-present) a series that problematizes notions around both immigration and climate change to highlight one of the most pressing issues of our time: environmental displacement in relationship to U.S.-centric xenophobia. Implicating ideas of land, borders, and environmental racism in the face of raging fires, changing climate patters, and rising waters.
In the gallery we are confronted with a series of large scale fiber vignettes that each picture a character journeying from a land made uninhabitable by the warming climate. The roaming figures pictured are obfuscated by body suits and headdresses that hide their identities from the viewer, echoing how dehumanization is weaponized in society to excuse the mistreatment of others. The prints on fabric, constructed from digital collages overlayed with staged performances-for-the-camera, are rendered full of hope despite the ominous scenes.
The immersive, large-scale installation also features Corona’s Climate Ponchos, which double as wearable sculptures. The intricately overlayed ponchos are cut from industrial, weatherproof vinyl or furnishing fabric materials and finished with leather cording woven through the edges. While their form recalls a simple rain poncho, the dynamic patterns on them tell colorful stories of migration and history depicting mundane scenes of mothers and other travelers on their journeys, ultimately humanizing the anonymous silhouettes.