Curatorial statement:

Tectonic Transference is a first in a series of solo exhibitions, as immersive platform engagements, by L.A born artist Lisa C Soto currently based in Ghana and Puerto Rico.

The exhibition takes us on an immersive, multi-sensorial journey through a collection of individual pieces which pulsate like an ‘ecosystem’. The show comprises of photographic transfer images on a plant-based support which depicts land and seascapes, sound recordings and scents of boiled nests from her home at Duende Achuwe in the Western Region of Ghana and Loiza in Puerto Rico. Deriving from her Caribbean heritage (Jamaica and Puerto Rico) and her stay across con2nents she employs techniques – which are inherently themes – like layering, collapsing, merging, juxtaposing and so on, merging images of the lands, seascapes, skies as well as molecules engaging with our olfactory senses, all culminating, into something new.

“When I transpose the images of these landscapes on either side of the Atlantic Sea, I see the tree bark, roots, mycelium, leaves, rocks, salt water, sand, earth, as the original archives, our first libraries, they hold the knowledge of the world, as well as our histories, our pain, our experiences... that is what this work is trying to communicate.” – Lisa C Soto on her photo transfer series Tectonic Transference, 2025

Soto’s words parallel Jane Bennett’s Vibrant Matter, where she admonishes the necessity to go beyond human-centered narratives and recognize the interconnectedness and agentic properties of ‘vibrant’ matter; worms, climate, microbes, vibrations, among others, which should be considered in our political actions and social imaginings.

Soto’s photo transfers stand like sentries marking tree lines, while some twirl like leaves in a gentle breeze as you choreograph your way through The Courtyard, there are hidden stories which beg a telling. There are those of the ongoing continental drift which began 200 million years ago; stories of the mulberry plant which once was a path to economic emancipation for its high-quality paper production capabilities, but now seen as an invasive colonizing plant. As well stories of the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade told through the transfers of plant species across continents, either through conquest or a yearning for freedom. Her story. Our story. There still lies many more stories that could emerge with this intervention. Do you know of any?

The show re-activates a site, now dubbed The Courtyard Accra. It’s an annex of Nuku Studio, Tamale – an institution dedicated to creating a supportive ecosystem of photographic and artistic practice. The Courtyard is coincidentally sited at the residence of Nuku Studio’s founder, Nii Obodai. Tectonic Transference is set in this convivial, quiet neighborhood of the airport residential area, like an oasis, but intermittently punctuated by the ice-cream man and a call to prayer of a nearby Mosque. In the air looms preparations for the annual “Detty December” celebrations in Ghana, which sees an exodus of diasporans from across the globe to the shores of Ghana, augmented by the 2019’s “Year of Return” to mark the 400th year of the first arrival of enslaved Africans to Virginia. Tectonic Transference may invite us to pause, and to ask – “Then what? What more could emerge out of this old and new Trans-Atlantic-movements?”

By Patrick Nii Okanta Ankrah (Curator)