top of page

An Island for an Exiled at Gatewood Gallery

Paula Damasceno’s An Island for an Exiled is a multisensory, multimedia installation exploring themes of difference and transcultural estrangement through traces of a street performance transposed into retreat. The installation creates space and time for Damasceno to become unlabeled and de-identified through multimodal displays and photographic processes. At times, Damasceno flattens the three-dimensional experience of performance into two-dimensional shapes; at others, she transforms the flatness of performance traces into immersive, three-dimensional experiences. These works reflect on the sacredness of self-definition, cultural transmission, estrangement, and (mis)translation. Drawing from the iconographies and materialities of the Western African Diaspora as the artist experiences them, Damasceno expands the photographic into a spatial phenomenon in which sound, silence, reflection, concealment, and display interact with repetition, transposition, and sequencing. Through An Island for an Exiled, Damasceno creates a meditative space that reimagines estrangement as a sacred, generative force for self-definition and cultural dialogue.

Closing Reception: January 22nd, 4:00 pm to 6 pm - artist talk at 4:30 pm


Exhibition Dates: 

  • December 9th - 22nd - by appointment only, click here.

  • Jan 6th - 22nd - Weekdays 9 am - 4 pm

  Weekends by appointment only, click here

Location: 527 Highland Ave, Greensboro, NC 27412

Website: https://www.instagram.com/uncggatewood/

bottom of page