Where Are We?
On view January 14, 2025–March 7, 2025. Begonia Labs: 2805 West End Avenue, Nashville, TN.
Opening reception scheduled for January 17, 2025 from 6-8pm.
Where Are We? invites us to reflect on time, place, and the future with curiosity. Featuring IMGRNT (Arash Shoushtari), Alena Mehic, Jerry Bedor Phillips, and Delanyo Mensah—whose roots span Iran, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Palau, and Ghana—the exhibition reassembles memory to reclaim the present and imagine new futures. These artists draw on family narratives, archival images, and personal histories to explore the complexities of migration and belonging.
The title evokes both disorientation and possibility, suggesting a threshold where boundaries blur and curiosity emerges. The question extends beyond physical place, probing the relationship between heritage, time, and transformation. The artists reject static notions of identity, offering layered realities that merge memory with reinvention.
Through worldbuilding, the artists move beyond survival, imagining new spaces for connection. They transform cultural symbols—origami boats, Persian rug motifs, postcards, and intergenerational portraits—honoring maternal figures and ancestral legacies. Their work shows that the immigrant experience is not merely adaptation but the creation of spaces where histories converge and futures are forged.
Where Are We? is guest curated by Sai Clayton as part of the Begonia |Curatorial Lab, a mentorship program fostering dialogue and curatorial exchange in the Global South(s). It is part ofSomewhere We Are Human, the 2024-25 Public Programs and Engagement series of the Engine for Art, Democracy & Justice at Vanderbilt University, supported by the Ford Foundation and Mellon Foundation.
About the Curator:
Sai Clayton (she/her) is an artist-curator based in Nashville, TN. Clayton’s work references her Japanese heritage and Southern upbringing, reflecting the absurdity of negotiating two cultures and races. She is interested in representing transcultural paradoxes expressed by the feeling of non-belonging and code switching experienced by immigrants and biracial people. She was previously the 2021-22 Curatorial Fellow at the Frist Art Museum and currently serves as Curatorial Director for COOP Gallery. She holds a B.A. in Visual Arts from Middle Tennessee State University.
About the Artists:
Arash Shoushtari, a.k.a. IMGRNT is an Iranian-born, American multi-disciplinary artist, currently based out of Nashville, TN. Shoushtair’s work explores a range of themes all centered within, and inspired by, the immigrant experience. His visual work is often an examination of visual perceptions, optical illusions, and modern takes on patterns that speak to a rich cultural background. As storytelling through patterns are a cornerstone of Persian rugs and textiles that are a big inspiration for his work.
Alena Mehić (b. 1995, Zavidovići, Bosnia & Herzegovina; lives in Nashville, TN) examines utopia, nation-building, and the archive within the expanded field of painting. She relies on elements of print media, cinema, design history, surrealism, and folklore to invoke parallel universes, investigating the disconnect between past projected futures and reality through altered and imagined space. Her interest in post-communist perception and the politics of memory lends itself to ambiguous images and hypnotic, dreamlike compositions that oscillate between flatness and true representation, further emphasizing a silent but steady descent into entropy.
Delanyo Mensah is a multidisciplinary artist and community builder passionate about creating inclusive communities. As an artist, Mensah’s work is centered around the beauty and complexity of her unique experiences as a queer first-generation Ghanaian-American woman. Through the mediums of photography, poetry, and mixed media, Mensah boldly challenges conventions and invites all to join in the journey of self-discovery and connection.
Jerry Bedor Phillips is an artist living and creating in Nashville, Tennessee. He is the building manager, studio assistant, and gallery coordinator for the Vanderbilt University Department of Art and for Space 204, the contemporary gallery space located in the E. Bronson Ingram Studio Arts Center. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in printmaking and drawing from Murray State University in 2007 and his Master of Fine Arts degree in printmaking and drawing from Bradley University in 2010.
Events and Exhibition Programs
Thursday, January 23, 7:30pm
Far East, Deep South Screening
Sarratt Cinema, 1st Floor | 2301 Vanderbilt Pl, Nashville, TN 37240
In partnership with INTERNATIONAL LENS at Vanderbilt’s Department of Cinema & Media Arts
Far East, Deep South is an award-winning feature documentary produced by Larissa Lam and Baldwin Chiu, a husband-wife music and filmmaking team based in Los Angeles, CA. The film is based off the award-winning short film, Finding Cleveland. The film was written and directed by Larissa Lam. It was edited by Dwight Buhler with music by world renown composer, Nathan Wang.
The film is told in a cinéma vérité style and also features interviews with notable leaders such as Congresswoman Judy Chu, former Mayor of Pace, MS, Levon Jackson, Chinese American Citizens Alliance Past President, Carolyn Chan and historians like Gordon Chang (Stanford History Department and author of The Chinese and the Iron Road), John Jung (author of Chopsticks in the Land of Cotton) and Jane Hong (author of Opening the Gates to Asia).
Film Synopsis:
“A Chinese American family’s search for their roots leads them to the Mississippi Delta, where they stumble upon surprising family revelations and uncover the racially complex history of the Chinese in the segregated South. Far East Deep South (Run time: 76 minutes) presents a personal and eye-opening perspective on race, immigration, and American identity. It sheds light on the history of Chinese immigrants living in the American South during the late 1800s to mid-1900s through the emotional journey of Charles Chiu and his family as they travel from California to Mississippi to find answers about his father, K.C. Lou. Along the way, they meet a diverse group of local residents and historians who help them discover how deep their roots run in America. The film also explores the interconnected relationship between the Black and Chinese communities in the Jim Crow era and the generational impact of discriminatory immigration policies, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act.”
– Larissa Lam
Learn more about the film here.
EADJ’s Migration in Film centers the voices of filmmakers and subject matters related to the immigrant experience. This screening is in collaboration with INTERNATIONAL LENS at Vanderbilt’s Department of Cinema & Media Arts, which encourages conversation and greater cross-cultural understanding through cinema.
Saturday, February 22, 1 – 4:00pm
Artist Skill Share
Begonia Labs: 2805 West End Avenue, Nashville, TN.
Join us for a hands-on “Skill Share” event featuring the artists from the Where Are We? exhibition. Visitors will be able to discuss the artworks in the exhibition with Jerry Phillips, Alena Mehic, and Delanyo Mensah, and participate in art-making activities inspired by personal histories and family narratives.
Learn to fold origami boats with Jerry Phillips and have the opportunity to contribute to his art installation. Bring a family photograph, document, or family artifact to help recreate a trompe l’oeil artwork with Alena Mehic. Dive into mixed media with Delanyo Mensah and create a collage and poem using family photographs and collage materials.
Guests are encouraged to bring their own source materials for the trompe l’oeil activity with Alena Mehic and the collage and poem activity with Delanyo Mensah. However, you are also welcome to use the supplies provided.
Admission: Free and open to the public.
Where Are We?
Closing reception scheduled for February 28, 2025 from 6-8pm.
Begonia Labs: 2805 West End Avenue, Nashville, TN.
Where Are We? invites us to reflect on time, place, and the future with curiosity. Featuring IMGRNT (Arash Shoushtari), Alena Mehic, Jerry Bedor Phillips, and Delanyo Mensah—whose roots span Iran, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Palau, and Ghana—the exhibition reassembles memory to reclaim the present and imagine new futures. These artists draw on family narratives, archival images, and personal histories to explore the complexities of migration and belonging.
Where Are We? is guest curated by Sai Clayton as part of the Begonia |Curatorial Lab, a mentorship program fostering dialogue and curatorial exchange in the Global South(s). It is part ofSomewhere We Are Human, the 2024-25 Public Programs and Engagement series of the Engine for Art, Democracy & Justice at Vanderbilt University, supported by the Ford Foundation and Mellon Foundation.
Learn more about the exhibition here.
Admission: Free and open to the public.
Additional Resources:
- Between Rivers and Revolutions, exhibition catalog
- Vanderbilt's Then and Now Program partnership with EADJ.