'Swan Song' art exhibition at River House Arts Explores Ecological and Metaphorical Landscapes
River House Arts and Contemporary Art Toledo are honored to present “Swan Song,” a collaborative traveling exhibition from Detroit-based artists Halima Afi Cassells and Shanna Merola. The show is currently on view through Sept. 28 at River House Arts. An artist talk will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 22, in the Little Theater of the Toledo Museum of Art (TMA), followed by an artist reception from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. at River House Arts in downtown Toledo. The reception will include a public ecological/climate justice related collage station with the artists providing magazines, materials and prompts, as well as printed photos.
In addition to the gallery exhibition, Cassells and Merola are presenting an installation in the outdoor courtyard of the Gehry building at the Center for Visual Arts, adjacent to the TMA thru Oct. 4.
Swan Song lands on the 65th anniversary of the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway by Queen Elizabeth II, an event that opened the Great Lakes to ocean-going freighters. It also opened the Great Lakes to ecologically disastrous invasive species, including the mute swan, which is a recurring figure of the exhibition, both aesthetically and metaphorically. The swan itself is a graceful creature and archetype: holding multiple meanings handed down through centuries and across different cultures. In Greek mythology, the silent swan sings a beautiful song just before death.
This timely exhibition merges photo-based collages with installation, expressing the impacts of colonization, resource extraction, climate crisis and corporate power – with the intention of prompting viewers to reflect on how these forces fracture realities and shape lives. While Merola’s dystopian landscapes seem fractured beyond repair by free market deregulation, Cassells' work envisions a path toward collective liberation, exploring how joy can be found through transformation and reclaiming power and agency.
After its stop in Toledo this month, the exhibition will continue to travel along Lake Erie, moving through Cleveland and Buffalo. As it travels, the exhibition will expand to incorporate imagery reflecting both the ecological wonders and hazards of each location. As the artists shift from Michigan to Ohio this fall they will unveil new works that speak to the land and waterways of Toledo with regard to toxic algae blooms and the highly invasive zebra mussel as threats to the local environment. At the same time, they will continue to uplift the abundance of natural beauty within the natural landscape - indigenous plants, wildlife, and ecosystems thriving all along the waterways.
“Swan Song” debuted at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit from Oct. 2022 – March 2023, alongside a robust series of public workshops and film screenings in the Mike Kelley Mobile Homestead. Later in the fall of 2023, Cassells and Merola unveiled a second iteration at the artist run collective Room Project in Detroit.
For more information about “Swan Song” and other upcoming exhibitions at River House Arts and Contemporary Art Toledo, visit riverhousearts.com/exhibitions.
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About Halima Afi Cassells
Cassells is an award-winning interdisciplinary, community-engaged artist, a mom of three, and an avid gardener with deep roots in Waawiiyaataanong/ Detroit, Michigan. Awarded the 2023 Kresge Arts in Detroit fellowship for interdisciplinary art, Cassells continually seeks to understand the interconnectedness of systems and self. A student of anthropology, macroeconomics, British imperialism and common law, global corporatism, climate crisis, and psychology; she uses her art with the intent of returning to a ‘right relationship.’ As an advocate for artists and cultural practitioners, Cassells has spearheaded many community processes that uplift cultural capital from often-exploited communities and creates in a collaborative context. She has been awarded grants from: Panta Rhea Foundation, BulkSpace, WDET-FM, Art Matters, Culture Source, Knight Foundation Arts Challenge and Artplace America. In addition to Detroit, her work has been featured in spaces in New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Oakland Calif., Oaxaca, Berlin, Copenhagen, Bogota and Harare. For more information, visit halimacassells.com.
About Shanna Merola
Merola is a visual artist, photojournalist, and legal worker. Her sculptural photo-collages are informed by the stories of environmental justice struggles past and present. Merola has been awarded studio residencies and fellowships through MacDowell, the Studios at MASS MoCA, Banff Centre for Arts + Creativity, Kala Institute of Art, the Society for Photographic Education, Bulk Space, the Kresge Arts Foundation, the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund and the Virginia Museum of Fine Art. Her collaborative projects include Detroit Resists: A Digital Occupation of the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (2016), Oil + Water: Photography in the Age of Disaster Economies with Kate Levy (2017) and Swan Song with Halima Afi Cassells at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (2022). She has shown her work in solo exhibitions both nationally and abroad at the Czong Institute for Contemporary Art in South Korea. Merola has held teaching appointments at Cranbrook Academy of Art, Wayne State University, the College for Creative Studies and in the Department of Art Practice at UC Berkeley in California. For more information, visit shannamerola.com.
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