Distance & Wildflowers

These photos were taken by Nikon D3400 in East Lansing, Michigan. As an artist in exile, Reyila explores the concept of home, belonging, and agency through her photography. Images speak as a form of healing, a way of expressing, and a possibility for carving an invisible home. These photos are created with a certain emotion, worldview, opinion, curiosity, desire, and awe. They are honest moments in a life in exile. In these photos, objects in the images are beyond human, but connect to humanity.

In the photo titled “Distance,” various layers in the world have encountered each other at the reflection of the water; they are not apart anymore. In the photo titled “Wildflowers,” wildflowers do not always respect the human-made boundary of wire fences; they are attempting, disrupting, and blooming in the sunshine.

These photos are situated in the relational flow of life between visible and invisible, human and non-human, stillness and movement. In today’s world dominated by anthropocentrism, her work presents a new possibility for the reconfiguration of the relationship between human and non-human. Looking beyond human allows to delink, reconnect, and open a new dimension of knowledge production.