Mythologies and the supernatural narrate the connections between humans, nature, animals, and ancestors in She taught me how to listen to the wind. In this tale of love and desire, seduction and power fuse nature with human. Two figures, hair flowing and skin tattooed with vines and symbols, make love in a cacao tree plantation, their bodies merging in earthly delight upon a white furry bed. A creature’s claw emerges from the leaves, revealing the presence of an ambiguous and mysterious lurking figure.   

She taught me how to listen to the wind is one in a series of paintings inspired by artist Kelly Sinnapah Mary’s grandmother’s intimate knowledge of plants, medicines, and the mythologies embedded within the lands of her home in Guadeloupe. Sinnapah Mary was raised unaware of her Tamil (Southern Indian) heritage but later delved into Indo-Caribbean writing, history, and mythology, along with the teachings of her grandmother. She learned the difficult histories of Tamil workers who traveled to Guadeloupe looking for a better life, only to find harsher realities on plantations thousands of miles from their homes. In their new homeland, Tamil people and their descendants developed reciprocal relationships with the land, animating indigenous stories and knowledge. 

-Jill Ahlberg Yohe, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art