The beauty of life is ultimately we’re free to wander, to migrate from place to place, from idea to idea, from image to image, taking our experiences to new territories of opportunity, to grow and evolve. In the past few years, people around the world have shared awareness of the pleasure and pain that comes with change. Driven by traumatic circumstances they seek alternatives and are transported to new ground.

A Ming Dynasty textile fragment in Knodel’s collection migrated in the late 1700s from China to Lisbon, Portugal, a treacherous journey that offered a new context generating unexpected responses from its new owners. In Europe, it appeared “exotic” and mysteriously different. 

A fragment of that original textile migrated to the artist’s studio where its inspiration and exotic appeal live to inspire new generations of offspring.

Between 2015 and 2019 Knodel has focused on this evolution, producing 65 works and multiple reactions to the imagery and associated cultural traditions conveyed in a single material object. This presentation invites viewers to experience an environment of his discoveries, to integrate their own identity with his journey, and ultimately to stand for the power of potential in each human life with a proud proclamation: I MIGRATE!