Cultivating Dispersal

Chicago Art Department

2025

Who belongs in the landscape? Labeled invasive, weeds inhabit neglected spaces, fractured edges, colonial ruins. Dormant below soil until time to sprout, they take root and persist, defying imposed borders—not as intruders, but as life resisting containment.

Iranian Azerbaijani-American Laleh Motlagh engages sociopolitical and environmental landscapes through tangled media, echoes of memory, and currents of migration. Weeds push through cracks, potted roots strain containers, dried plants retain traces of landscapes. Here, migration is not just movement—it is a waiting in the silence of unseen transitions, where roots stretch and memories linger in the stillness before finding new ground.

Text and curation: Cecilia González Godino

Special thanks to Carlos Flores and Deon Reed

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