Short film screenings take travelers on a visual journey

From now until January 2023, travelers near Miami International Airport’s MIAmi screening area at gate J7 can take a visual journey from Floridian rivers to European mountains with Wherever We Land…, a screening program of two short films - Slipping Through Your Fingers (2022) and Hush the Sky (2013) - by multidisciplinary artist Alette Simmons-Jiménez. 

Recording bitstream-type memories using lines, design, and patterns from her experiences and snapshots, the animation follows the artist's memories as they jump into consciousness, beginning with a wish she made, blowing dandelion seeds into the wind.

Slipping Through Your Fingers is a short film that engages viewers in a conversation of texture, movement, light, and sound, calling to the sacred and ephemeral of nature. Using imagery of Florida's natural environment, the artist suggests a stream of consciousness in a beautiful, moving video poem. As Simmons-Jiménez explains, the film “is visual thought, drifting into your sensibilities like a river, awakening you to an existence connected to all things.”  

Hush The Sky is a hand-drawn chalkboard stop-motion animation recording of the artist's random memories from a road trip she took in search of her early childhood years.

Recording bitstream-type memories using lines, design, and patterns from her experiences and snapshots, the animation follows the artist's memories as they jump into consciousness, beginning with a wish she made, blowing dandelion seeds into the wind.

Utilizing painting, sculpture, video, light, poetry, and sound, Alette Simmons-Jiménez aims to create visual experiences that celebrate the transformative power of nature. Her films invite viewers to contemplate and explore more profound experiences with nature, providing a better understanding of oneself and each other in the process.

Alette Simmons-Jiménez, who currently lives and works in Miami, Florida, has solo shows that have been held at: The Museum of Arts & Sciences, Daytona Beach, FL; Space S/223, Miami Design District; Oolite Arts, Miami Beach; Francis Wolfson Gallery, Miami-Dade College; Inter-American Development Bank Gallery, Washington, DC; Museo de Arte Moderno, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; and Miami-Dade Cultural Resource Gallery. Selected group shows include: 21c Museum, Louisville, Kentucky; the Art in Embassies Program, US State Department, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; the Frost Art Museum, Miami, FL; Appleton Museum, Ocala, FL; Renaissance Center, Dickson, TN; Casa de Cultura, Valencia, Spain; Society of Four Arts, Palm Beach, FL; Mobile Museum, AL; Banana Factory, PA; and Gulf Coast Museum, Largo, FL.

She is the recipient of several awards, including a Knight Arts Grant, a Florida Arts Fellowship, and "1st Prize in Video" from XVIII Biennial of the Dominican Republic, where she is recognized as the first woman in the country to exhibit video installation art.

MIAmi (Miami International Airport moving images) is a project space dedicated to screening curated and juried program selections that include experimental films, animated shorts, dance on film, and short documentaries.