Fallen Blooms (2020)
Fallen Blooms, is a collaboration between Portland based artists Rachel Gloria Adams and Ashley Page. Rachel’s floral design work flourishes along the wall, while Ashley’s cyanotypes emerge throughout the design. Rachel’s floral shapes draw inspiration from African, folkloric and Scandinavian textiles. Rachel uses floral motifs to connect and entangle the portraits -these humans most likely never crossed paths but their fate connects them.
The cyanotypes are a part of an ongoing wheatpasting project that Ashley created in response to the death of George Floyd, titled In Memory of Those Taken. Initiated in Minneapolis, Minnesota where Ashley witnessed her home town erupt in social solidarity, the posters have migrated to Portland in order to continue this conversation. These prints were created to honor the lives of African American’s that have been cut short due to racially motivated violence. This work speaks directly to the reality that black people face in America, that on any given day, it could be you on the news. So with this project, we present the lives of the dearly departed in a bed of flowers to pay homage to their beauty and remember the life they led with grace and excellence.
Thank you to Indigo Arts Alliance, The Francis Hotel and Tandem Coffee Roasters for the providing space for this project to exist and amplifying Black visions. And thank you to Ryan and Rachel Adams (and Zoe and Nora) for the moral, mental, collaborative and art support.
Photos by Lauryn Hottinger and Ryan Adams