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'Overlapping Empires' at Van Cortlandt House examines Caribbean colonial legacies
Summary
The Van Cortlandt House Museum is hosting "Overlapping Empires," a summer exhibition by artist Samantha Box that layers contemporary photography over period rooms to explore Caribbean histories of colonial extraction and diaspora. The exhibit runs June 5–Aug. 30.
The Van Cortlandt House Museum opened a summer exhibition featuring artist Samantha Box that explores how Caribbean histories of colonialism and extraction intersect with the museum’s period rooms. Nicole Rosado, reporting for BronxNet, said the museum and Box collaborated to present the show that places contemporary images within the historic house.
Box described the show's visual strategy as creating “screens” — photographs printed on clear material “so that you would have to negotiate, like, these rooms and the histories that are enshrined in the rooms.” She said the screens force visitors to encounter either the historical displays or the contemporary commentary first, prompting visitors to reconsider what the rooms were designed to convey.
Rosado said the exhibit uses still-life paintings, tourist photos and commercial photography to trace aesthetic and economic principles that helped uphold empire. “The exhibit takes you to one of the earliest colonial colonies in New York City in the 17th century,” she said, noting that the work links the museum's history to broader imperial narratives.
Speaking from her perspective in the diaspora, Box framed the Caribbean as a region shaped by ongoing systems of capitalism and exploitation. “The ways that these systems of capitalism ... and exploitation ... were born in the Caribbean are still continuing to affect my life,” she said, describing the personal dimension behind the project.
Rosado summarized the exhibit’s goal: Overlapping Empires “explores the captivating designs and logic that allow empire, their ideas of freedom, and exploitative systems to exist and determine our perception of the world and our lives.” The Van Cortlandt House, she said, is the city’s oldest museum, making the conversation between historic interiors and contemporary work particularly pertinent.
Overlapping Empires is on view June 5 through Aug. 30 at the Van Cortlandt House Museum. Reporting for BronxNet, Nicole Rosado.
