To Be Dwellers With This Land
TO BE DWELLERS WITH THIS LAND
6 embroidered and beaded digital photographs on organic cotton and silk
organic cotton, silk, vintage embroidery floss, sequins, branches
by Pangea Kali Virga
Co-curated by Tori Scott, and Ileana Lopez
original photographs taken by Ryan Swartzlander
JOIN ME AT THE ESTATE TO CELEBRATE THE EXHIBITION
To Be Dwellers With This Land
Artist Reception: May 10th, 2025, 3-5 pm
Artist Talk: June 14th, 2025, 1-3 pm
Free & open to the public with RSVP.
Exhibition on display daily through July 20th, 2025, included with general admission.
Free with RSVP on Eventbrite
16701 SW 72 Avenue Miami, FL 33157 305-235-1668 ext. 233 – www.deeringestate.org
TO BE DWELLERS WITH THIS LAND
The Perrine Grant- 38 in x 50 in- embroidery, beads, digital photograph on silk
My Thoughts Drift Here- 28 in x 40 in- embroidery, beads, digital photograph on organic cotton satin
Tide-Risen Belly Of A Mangrove God- 42 in x 63 in - embroidery, sequins, digital photograph on organic cotton satin
Living Materials- 28 in x 40 in- embroidery, digital photograph on organic cotton satin
Hidden In The Mangroves- 23 in x 35 in- embroidery, beads, digital photograph on silk
To Be Dwellers With This World - 25 x17 in - embroidery, beads, digital photograph on silk, upcycled fabric
the works
interactive
exhibition
the procESSS AND RESEARCH
Drifts
BY Danielle Vogel
Drift two—
perfect curtains of algae
almost as one —
and the phytoplankton rise
oxygen levels , a radiance
in the Sound’s center trough
up and out toward the shoals
atmosphere , estuary - -
confluent tides—
this upwelling :
of organisms , of winds and waters
drifts of nourishing darkness , light , salt—
hydrogen—and with this /
exchange
386DANIELLE VOGEL
Drift three—
tidal resonance /
in the sea floor
above the sea floor
now under the tide
watershed and upswell
of marsh and beach edge ,
of tidal forests , mangrove
swamps
- - expansions
to be of moraines
and sills
little necks - - cherry
stones, of osprey
porcupine and river otter
whelks
urchin ,
to be of mudflat fox
of periwinkle ,
and the winter skate’s purse - -
387DANIELLE VOGEL
to work this good darkness
into the shallows
this vital brackish water
resuscitation
of every coastal stream
388DANIELLE VOGEL
Drift four—
to be dwellers with this land - -
to be of source to sea
Petitioning the Patron Saint of Childbirth
There is a place not far from here where
two rivers meet the sea, a shore dark
and pitted as a caiman’s back.
My thoughts drift here when I pray to you,
to swollen water and lonely spit,
tide-risen belly of a mangrove god.
Every white room I enter is untruth.
The doctor is not my maker. He can barely keep
my bones together. He cannot sew me
into wholeness, even with your holy medallion
round my neck. Oh saint, there is so much
I cannot tell you.
Perhaps I will confide in Xochiquetzal,
goddess of childbirth, mother of ocelots and flowers.
Perhaps I will write letters
to my own mother with invisible pigment
made of colostrum and brine.
But these words are all seeds, hard-shelled
and deep-veined like nutmeg, falling to earth
in careless handfuls. I know this forest of silence
is of my own making.
Now what can you say to me
that the wild Atlantic has not?
I’ve already heard the one about
everything happening for a reason.
Dear saint, I know you will not
take me in your pristine arms
and make me weightless, even if I beg.
Behind my eyes at night there is only water,
my unborn child inside me a turn of turtles
flailing in the deep, crossing the unknown.