Speaking to Falling Seeds Large Scale Installation by Tatyana Fazlalizadeh
Key Takeaways:
- Speaking to Falling Seeds is now on view at the California African American Museum (CAAM) through August 3, 2025.
- The large-scale installation features graphite portraits of Black Angelenos, based on intimate interviews and photography.
- The project addresses themes of safety, memory, resistance, and connection to nature.
- Curated by Essence Harden and Taylor Bythewood-Porter, the show will also connect to a concurrent exhibition at Art + Practice in Los Angeles.
Brooklyn-based artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh brings her powerful interdisciplinary voice to Los Angeles with Speaking to Falling Seeds, a sweeping installation now occupying the atrium of the California African American Museum (CAAM). The project marks one of her most ambitious works to date and is the product of months spent engaging directly with Black residents of Los Angeles.
The centerpiece of the installation is a graphite-drawn portrait, designed from photographs and conversations collected during her time living in LA. One standout image places her subject atop a sprawling tree, surrounded by twisting branches and falling leaves — symbols of growth, vulnerability, and rootedness. Embedded in the composition is a vintage family photograph from Fazlalizadeh’s personal archive, capturing joy and togetherness in nature, further connecting her subjects to a shared ancestral landscape.
Themes and Methodology:
- Black Safety in Public and Private Spaces: The portraits ask what it means to feel safe — physically, emotionally, and spiritually — in a city that often fails to offer that sense of security to its Black residents.
- Memory as Resistance: The integration of vintage photographs and natural motifs ties personal memory to collective history, honoring both the past and present.
- Community-Driven Practice: Based on live interviews and intimate storytelling, Fazlalizadeh’s work continues the legacy of her Stop Telling Women to Smile campaign by making marginalized voices visually and publicly dominant.
Tatyana Fazlalizadeh is renowned for blending art with activism. Her work has appeared in public spaces, museums, and TV (including HBO’s Insecure), always centering the stories of Black and marginalized people. Speaking to Falling Seedscontinues her exploration of portraiture as a tool of affirmation, resistance, and communal memory.
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