Greenhouse Projects at PSA
Byline: Amara Phelps, Nathaniel Pepe
Tuesday, February 18, 2025
Surrendering control and accepting humility, Positive Street Art’s newest exhibition of interactive, interdisciplinary works from four local creatives, entitled the Greenhouse Projects, invites its audience to explore what lies within the shadows and surprises of the unseen, forgotten worlds in our own neighborhoods.
Embracing the decay and delicacy of our natural world, New Hampshire artists Yasamin Safarzadeh, Michelle Peterson, Dei Xhrist, and Laura Zorawowicz collaborated over the course of 12 months in creating a vast body of multimedia work that ebbs and flows with their distinct identities. As the gifted masters relinquish their ideas to the world, Positive Street Art’s interactive gallery exhibition event and immersive artists discussion solicits viewers to join their world of play and discovery, extending the life, cultural impact and creative mileage of the finished artwork. Pushing the envelope of New Hampshire’s art and gallery scene, the Greenhouse Projects was a delicate and miraculously woven web stemming from the musings of an abandoned Manchester marvel.
The compilations of the four varied artist’s efforts, which they entitled the Greenhouse Projects, are a series of works created in a greenhouse. The greenhouse homebase for the artist’s adventures is a diaphanous art piece itself hidden away in the depths of Pine Grove Cemetery, one of Manchester’s hidden 1970s wonders. A collection of paintings, textile weavings, videos and sound displays created a flow of audience members who came in handfuls throughout the space. Opening examination by yielding various perspectives, the gallery implored viewers to excavate themselves and one another.
The show was abuzz with audiences from all walks of life and economic sectors; a rich tapestry of our various communities who generously gave their time to attend the opening reception.
The crowd felt much like a star studded fashion show; with viewers being able to spot the very models gracing the walls as poetry in motion circulating the room alongside them. Tapping into and coalescing with the incredible network is yet another reason pulling audiences to routinely show up and show out for PSA. An expert curation of both social and aesthetic design, exhilarating exhibitions like these find and connect with like minded creatives and art enjoyers and elevate our local visionary economy and impact.
Lead Positive Street Art curator and exhibiting artist Safarzadeh chose to reimagine the stereotypical keynote speech carried with a gallery exhibition. With the artists sharing space amongst the audience in a round table style discussion, each of them shared a piece of their perspective on their process and curation of work. Zorawowicz detailed her hibernation from artistic ventures as she entered the professional nonprofit world and the 15 years of subsistence since her last exhibit which carried her to this point. One particularly striking piece, which remained unnamed and was completed in a bout of inspiration the night before the gallery, was composed from pieces of reclaimed rope tied haphazardly around the gallery’s firewall, hitched up to the steel support beam in the center of the room like a ship to port. Its graceful presence gives the gallery space the feel of a wave tossed vessel, staid and fastened against transmutation.
Sound and visual artist Dei Xhrist spoke next about cherishing immediacy, and the desire to act on things without pretense and conceived thought. Her work consisted of a swath of mediums, even branching beyond visual; Xhrist allows herself the freedom to “use mediums and styles that fulfill {their} mission; sometimes learning new tools, re-learning ones unused for decades, or constraining to available resources.”
The buck was then passed to Safarzadeh, sharing thoughts about interdisciplinariness and the importance of becoming multifaceted in our approach to both the world around us and art making itself. Michelle Peterson had much to say about the sense of accountability the Greenhouse Projects nurtured and collaborating with her fellow artists provided her to not only accomplish but elevate her process. Peterson shared her belief that the greenhouse was in service not only as a space for them to work, but served as a significant inspiration toward shaping the art they would go onward to make. Speeches gracefully gave way to a presentation of music by a duo of string musicians from the New Hampshire Philharmonic led by Nicholas So, performing pieces by composer Phillip Glass, Xavier Foley and Louis Armstrong. Each piece was accompanied by an explanation of the time/space the composers were burgeoned from.
Each passerby and spectator left with a myriad of opinions all their own about the affair. One such viewer, Loïck, heartily shared his individual impression. “It’s something to think about, you know?” There was much more to make of the works on display than what could be contained within a short conversation. “ You never know what to expect, just show up.” In his own way, Loïck perfectly captured the feeling the artists sought to communicate. Just showing up seemed to get one quite far, in fact; good things sometimes make themselves known to those who open themselves to finding them.
Jessica is another spectator and a creator herself; although she wasn’t on display within the gallery that night, her work focuses on immersive sound baths and other holistic forms of art. Reflecting on the overarching themes and new energies of the night, Jessica explained “I like taking the outside in…and this strikes something I like.” That sentiment seemed apparent in its echo throughout the attendees, with the results of the gallery’s interactive do it yourself collage showcasing the audience’s tapping into their ferality on display.
The Greenhouse Projects served to remind its artists as well as its audience to embrace our sense of intuition. The exhibition of impossibly delicate and improbable impromptu moments implores the idea that sometimes, any amount of thinking is overthinking; maybe even all the time. Positive Street Art remains a stronghold of culture, presenting an enchanting display of the NH art scene flourishing and learning the lesson in real time.
