Unfortunately, It Was Paradise examines the entangled histories of ecology and migration. The three artists address
how ecology surfaces in our memory, imagination, and present that are shaped by the
legacies of slavery, war, and settler colonialism. Geographer Kathryn Yusoff writes,
“Imperialism and ongoing (settler) colonialisms have been ending worlds for as long
as they have been in existence.” While mainstream environmentalism attempts to “protect”
land by displacing Indigenous communities or building border walls to restrict mobility
and control the population, the works in this exhibition reframe ecology as a site
of intersectionality, tending particularly to those in the diaspora who cultivate
new forms of life within and beyond the boundaries of the nation-state.