March 19 – April 17, 2023

96 journeys. From 1987 to 2021. Graphite on mylar.

Summa, an installation of new work by Moez Surani and Nina Leo, engages recent journeys that migrants around the world have taken.

Summa comprises ninety-six line drawings, each of which renders a person’s path. The drawings are organized into four series: Africa and Europe (Series 1), the Americas (Series 2), Asia and Australia (Series 3), and Inter-Continental (Series 4). The graphite on mylar drawings are meticulously drawn to scale, and their corresponding maps are implied. The variety of shapes these lines take tell the complexities of obstacles, refusals, political circumstances, and psychological traits inherent in these paths. One line turns again and again through the Mediterranean when a boat is adrift, another circles back through Latin America before a further northward push, one line forks into two when a mother and daughter are separated, and many lines conclude in a body of water.

Like a life, each line carries a specific physical, spatial, and psychological character. With each drawing recording an individual action, this body of work creates a poetic impression of vitality, duress, and large-scale political and environmental influences. The title, Summa, expresses the multitude of pressures that are exerted on a single life.