Jillian Marie Browning, whose exhibition Rootwork is on view in the East Gallery of the Albany Museum of Art, hopes to connect with Albany and South Georgia residents at an Artist Talk on Thursday, Sept 12, at the AMA. The 5:30 pm event is free and open to the public.

“I’ll be talking about the works in this exhibition, some of my other work, and my most recent research practice,” Browning said. “My work is primarily about my experiences as a Black fem person growing up in the South and what those experiences have been like for me, things that I relate to, and my connection to the land and my connection with my Southern culture.”

Browning, whose preferred pronouns are they/them, is based in Birmingham, Ala., where they are an assistant professor of photography at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Browning earned a Bachelor of Science at the University of Central Florida and a Master of Fine Arts in Studio Arts from Florida State University. Their work has been exhibited across the Eastern region.

In the exhibition, Browning creates intersections between Black hair practices and culture with botany and vegetation. Rootwork refers to the roots of the hair, which are connected to spirituality, and to the Southern healing tradition that interweaves hoodoo and conjuring with resources directly from the environment.

“It is a solo exhibition of Jillian Marie Browning’s work titled after Black hair care and practices, but also after the Southern healing tradition,” AMA Curator of African Collections and African Diasporic Art Sidney Pettice said. “Rootworkers were often the matriarchs of their families. This healing tradition was borne out of enslavement and a lack of medical resources. These matriarchs utilized natural resources to care for their families and community members. Browning's works highlight the hidden narratives behind the Black Southern landscape, and Black Southern cultures.”

Browning’s artworks in Rootwork are large-scale Cyanotypes on fabric and paper. Cyanotypes are a photographic process that dates back to the 19th century.

“I guess technically I am a photographic artist,” Browning said. “All of my background and my training are in photography, so my work is photo-based. But I consider myself to be an interdisciplinary artist because of the materials I like to work with and some of the processes that I do.

“They are image-based, but I like for things to feel sculptural, and you can see my hand in that work as well. The imagery in the work is important, but the materials and the process the work is made through are also big parts of it. It’s also important to me for people to be able to see some of that materiality in the work and to feel it. That’s why I work on a very large scale, so you can walk into a space and be involved in the thing that you are seeing.”

Browning has exhibited in Georgia, but this is their first solo exhibition in the state. Their first visit to Albany was during the installation of Rootwork at the AMA in August. The artist said that having the exhibition in a place where viewers understand the imagery is beneficial.

“It’s really important for me to make work about the South, but also to show my work in the South,” Browning said. “I’m making this work to tell these stories and to have these connections with people, and it’s important for people who live there to see and understand it. It hits differently when somebody who understands and knows what I’m talking about sees that work than when I’m showing this work up north or out west and have to explain what something is. I love when someone can walk into a space and they point and go, ‘Oh, I know what that plant is.’”

The Albany region is similar to the area where Browning grew up. “I’m from a very rural place in Central Florida. A lot of people assume Florida is not Southern, but I’m from cows, horses, middle-of-the-forest Florida,” they said. “This looks like the place where I grew up.”

Browning said they hope the Artist Talk will be an opportunity to connect with Southwest Georgians. “I’ll be talking about some of the experiences leading up to this body of work I’m currently working on,” the artist said. “Also, I want to talk about and connect with the people of Albany. I’ve never been here before, but it’s a Southern landscape. I’ll be talking about those experiences and I’m hoping to connect with people, and I’m hoping they connect with the work I’m making. They may even have some of those same feelings or experiences in their connections to the land and things like that.”

There is no admission cost to the AMA or the Artist Talk. Please RSVP. The free registration link is at www.albanymuseum.com/event/jillian-marie-browning-artist-talk.