Samantha Nalini Box

In Transplant Family Portrait (2020), Samantha Nalini Box assembles a domestic ecosystem of potted plants, artificial light, and everyday materials to explore the conditions of diasporic growth and adaptation. Arranged on a table under a saturated pink glow, the plants—some thriving, others wilting—are accompanied by receipts, containers, and traces of daily care. The scene recalls both a still life and a laboratory, where cultivation becomes an ongoing, attentive process shaped by external conditions.

The notion of “transplant” operates on multiple levels: botanical, cultural, and familial. The plants, removed from their original environments, must adjust to new climates and infrastructures, mirroring the experiences of migration and resettlement. The presence of banana-related elements—whether through stickers, plant varieties, or associative cues—anchors the work within the broader economies and imaginaries of Caribbean agriculture. These traces suggest that even in domestic interiors, the histories of cultivation and circulation persist.

As in Box’s wider practice, the work resists a singular image of home. Instead, it proposes a space that is provisional, constructed, and maintained through care. The plants do not simply symbolize origin; they enact the ongoing labor of sustaining life in displacement. In this context, the banana becomes part of a larger vegetal network through which identity is not fixed but continuously negotiated—grown, tended, and transformed over time.