M Gallery, CICA Museum
May 14 – 18, 2025
2025.5.14 – 5.18
The Trees You Grew Up With Have Not Forgotten You
This work examines the formation of identity and the enduring significance of place. Through the mediums of self-portraiture and the 19th-century photographic process of cyanotype, I explore the intersection of personal history, ancestral memory, and botany—constructing visual topographies that speak to the layered experience of inheritance and belonging. These works trace the contours of landscapes that appear untamed, yet are rich with whispered narratives—sites where resilient flora act as silent witnesses and carriers of intergenerational knowledge. Central to this series is the sugarcane plant, a symbol deeply entwined with my familial lineage. Its tall, swaying stalks echo the texture and presence of my locs, creating a visual metaphor that binds my corporeal identity to the land itself. The specific cane depicted in this work was planted by my father and allowed to grow wild for years. It stands now as a living archive—a testament to care, endurance, and continuity. The same hands that cultivated this plant also nurtured me; the same soil that sustained it grounded my earliest understandings of self and place. The cyanotype process, with its roots in scientific documentation and taxonomy, becomes a vehicle for reclaiming narrative and bodily autonomy. Historically used to catalog botanical specimens, this medium is recontextualized in my work to examine and resist the legacy of exploitation within gynecological medicine—particularly as it relates to the histories of Black women. By positioning my Black femme body within this process, I assert visibility, agency, and a critical reimagining of archival practice. Each print becomes both artifact and act of resistance, embodying the sacred ties between nurture, survival, and self-definition.
Jillian Marie Browning (she/they) is an interdisciplinary artist whose work engages themes of feminism, identity, and the contemporary Black experience. Rooted in both personal narrative and broader cultural critique, Browning’s practice spans photography, printmaking, and alternative photographic processes. Their work often interrogates systems of representation, reclaiming archival forms and visual language to center Black femme subjectivity. Born in Ocala, Florida, Browning earned a Bachelor of Science in Photography from the University of Central Florida in 2012, followed by a Master of Fine Arts in Studio Art from Florida State University in 2015. Their work has been exhibited nationally and is included in the permanent collections of the Center for Photography at Woodstock, the Southeast Museum of Photography, and the David C. Driskell Center for the Study of Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora at the University of Maryland. Browning currently serves as Assistant Professor of Photography at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
