Opening for Cali Es Cali – Home Here and There

In Cali es Cali, or “Cali is Cali”, artist Carolyn Castano plays with two popular expressions. The first, “Cali es Cali”—is an expression from Carolyn’s father’s hometown of Cali, Colombia, which is akin to the American adage, “There is no place like home.” The second is a nickname for California: “Cali”—a term popularized by LL Cool J in his 1988 hit song, “Going Back to Cali.”

As a point of departure and inspiration, Carolyn uses their late father’s photographic archive—comprised of 4,000 photographs, films, and videos—to consider the fragility and ephemerality of memory and identity. The photographs in the exhibition are juxtaposed next to drawings of the landscape (inspired by Von Humboldt’s landscapes and botanical studies) and considers the ways in which the land figures in the trajectory and memory of the migrant/ immigrant.