Mauricio Muñoz and Andrew Roberts' installation "The Harvest" (2021) is featured in "otherwise," a thesis exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art at MECA&D in Portland, running through Dec. 13. The show also includes works by Ayana V. Jackson, whose project "From the Deep: In the Wake of Drexciya" was targeted by Donald Trump in his attacks on the Smithsonian Institution. The exhibition explores how artists use storytelling and worldbuilding to cope with difficult contemporary issues and imagine better futures, serving as a companion to the Ogunquit Museum of American Art's "Where the Real Lies."
The article matters because it positions art as a counterforce to political efforts to impose a single, sanitized narrative of American history. By highlighting artists like Jackson who confront historical injustices through Afrofuturist imagery, the show demonstrates the power of multifaceted personal narratives to resist censorship and propaganda. It underscores the enduring freedom of artistic expression even when targeted by political figures, and connects local exhibitions to broader national debates about cultural representation and historical memory.