June 20 – September 14, 2025
The Griffin Museum is pleased to present on our Griffin Rotary Terrace Jill Enfield’s powerful installation, Glasshouse of New Americans.
“…this ever-evolving diversity challenges the idea of a single dominant vision of the American identity, encouraging Americans to embrace inclusion and pluralism.” – Ellis Island Museum.
Titled “The New Americans,” this physical display explores heritage, genealogy, and homeland.
Artist Jill Enfield remarks on her project – My personal connection to immigration, with my paternal relatives fleeing Frankfurt, Germany, in 1939, inspired a project honoring immigrants’ integral role in society and acknowledging the challenges they continue to face to this day. Combining 19th century wet collodion ambrotypes with digital scanning and 21st -century printing, I sought to merge traditional and digital photographic practices. The distressed exterior window frames forming the glasshouse were sourced from abandoned side roads, flea markets, and construction sights, symbolizing the precarious nature of immigration that still exists today.
The wet collodion process references the technique used to document immigrants passing through Ellis Island in the 1800’s. By blending historical and contemporary elements, I aimed to created portraits reflecting both the historic technique and the present-day reality of immigration.
Photography, reliant on the interplay of time and light, becomes a narrative journey during the prolonged exposures required by the wet collodion process. The resulting stillness allows the viewer to step into the photographer’s and the subjects’ shared experience, capturing the far-reaching heritage and stories encoded in each subject’s eyes. Once assembled, the glasshouse becomes an interactive experience. Visitors can walk around and through it, casting shadows that add a dynamic element to the portraits. The glasshouse serves as a metaphor for the diversity that makes up our country – each panel contributing to its strength. If you removed one panel, the house would fall.
The phrase “Those in glass houses should not throw stones” gains poignant meaning as viewers gaze into the eyes of the New Americans, realizing that we are all immigrants. This understanding of heritage and history is crucial for fostering a more empathetic and compassionate future.
