Drawing inspiration from the “Dark Forest Theory,” which suggests that civilizations remain hidden to avoid conflict, Salim Green’s practice explores themes of concealment, visibility, and opacity. Adapting this idea, Green investigates relational dynamics and Black existence through acts of strategic withdrawal, emphasizing unknowability, interiority, and survival. His projects often take the form of interconnected nodes scattered across various locations, each contributing to a larger discourse that is accessed incompletely and discreetly. This approach challenges traditional notions of exhibition and display, offering varied, hyper-contextual points of communication that invite viewers to connect language to image, medium, and place. Green's work operates on an assumption that an exhibition or a display of art cannot be read as a complete statement for a general audience. Instead, his project offers varied, hyper-contextual points of communication, asking viewers within and outside of art spaces to connect language to image, medium, and place, and to experience how “both hiding and evangelizing” can produce public discourse. ...
