Maria Cristina Jadick / Into Resilience
Hurricane Harvey an extreme weather event of epic proportions rained over a trillion gallons of water on Houston, causing unprecedented destructive flooding. Buffalo Bayou, a main waterway in Houston, was the center for much of Harvey's flooding, and is featured during Harvey's aftermath in Jadick's paintings. Several weeks after Hurricane Harvey's flooding, Jadick, armed with her camera, visited Buffalo Bayou banks and local neighborhoods to survey the damage and document as a witness the storm's staggering effects. She collected found branches and limbs that had been torn from trees by the battering floodwaters as remnants of the waters violent ferocity. Jadick later attached those pieces of wood to her paintings as memento mori.
While driving on her way to help a friend whose home had been flooded, Jadick observed with shock and dismay, how along curbsides, there were high piles of discarded contents of flooded homes, house after house, street after street. The piles, stacked half as high as the homes themselves, contained drenched and stained mattresses, furniture, clothing, bedding, books, toys, drywall and pink insulation; remnants of lived life. She was overtaken with feelings of compassion and sorrow for the families who had lost so much, but later, instead of seeing trauma, Jadick recognized the awesome beauty of brave renewal, and of remarkable overcoming. It is this new gaze that Jadick conveys with her work that may help us see differently.
While the works in her "Into Resilience" Solo Exhibition are an evocative investigation of the post Hurricane Harvey flooding event, and despite being a harbinger of more such climate change related events to come, they also bring into focus the resilience and adaptability of those who in the midst of terrible loss, discovered the indomitable human spirit, a spirit which brought people together in recovery and rebuilding in the hope of a better and more sustainable future. With a sense of urgency, this is the human spirit we need to cultivate, and rely on, so we can make the changes necessary for better preparedness as we move forward and face whatever is coming.
While driving on her way to help a friend whose home had been flooded, Jadick observed with shock and dismay, how along curbsides, there were high piles of discarded contents of flooded homes, house after house, street after street. The piles, stacked half as high as the homes themselves, contained drenched and stained mattresses, furniture, clothing, bedding, books, toys, drywall and pink insulation; remnants of lived life. She was overtaken with feelings of compassion and sorrow for the families who had lost so much, but later, instead of seeing trauma, Jadick recognized the awesome beauty of brave renewal, and of remarkable overcoming. It is this new gaze that Jadick conveys with her work that may help us see differently.
While the works in her "Into Resilience" Solo Exhibition are an evocative investigation of the post Hurricane Harvey flooding event, and despite being a harbinger of more such climate change related events to come, they also bring into focus the resilience and adaptability of those who in the midst of terrible loss, discovered the indomitable human spirit, a spirit which brought people together in recovery and rebuilding in the hope of a better and more sustainable future. With a sense of urgency, this is the human spirit we need to cultivate, and rely on, so we can make the changes necessary for better preparedness as we move forward and face whatever is coming.