hady barry

TATI

TATI is an occasional newsletter. The letters are a means for me to clarify my thoughts and share updates about my practice. Each one will center around three works that have moved me—hence the name Tati, which means 'three' in Pulaar, my mother tongue.

TATI #02: A simple flower is a miracle

 

The title of this letter comes from a quote by François Cheng: philosopher, poet, and also one of my father’s friends (as he likes to think). It was Cheng’s response during a talk show on the notion of beauty.

I have become obsessed with flowers, you see.

The flowers by my window, Oaxaca, 2025

The flowers drying by my window, Oaxaca, 2025

My residency with Pocoapoco has come to an end a few days ago. During my time in Oaxaca, I’ve continued to reflect on how best to remember and honor those we have lost—especially to state violence. I have come to think of people as seeds and as flowers. A life is a miracle. I then grew to think of gardens as places where people can live on, as sites of remembrance, beauty, repose, and gathering. By the end of the residency, it became clear that my next project would take the shape of a garden.

I’m intrigued and excited by this new direction.

BUT, WHERE IN THE WORLD IS HADY?

Paris, France
This Thursday, February 13, at 19h CET, I’ll be participating in Le Feuilletage #11. Le Feuilletage is an event proposed by the Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, dedicated to photography books. It is an immense honor to share my book in this format. If you’re in Paris, I hope to see you there. [Buy tickets here.]

Cairo, Egypt
In May, I will be a resident at ARD South. I hope to spend time with the Sudanese community in Cairo and make work with them. If you have any contacts, I would welcome introductions.

Otherwise, you can find me in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

“Gardens, history, and hope are the same. Though once dearly beloved, if left untended, without anyone’s dedication and care, much will be totally lost.”
— Soil, Camille T. Dungy

now, WHAT HAS BEEN ON MY MIND?

  1. “Les Fleurs” – Minnie Riperton (1969)
    This song has been a balm—so much so that I’ve started meditating to it (when I remember to). Every time I hear it, I am moved, for obvious reasons given my current obsession, by these lyrics: “Inside every man, lives the seed of a flower / If he looks within, he finds beauty and power”.

  2. Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden – Camille T. Dungy (2023)
    A reflection on gardening as a Black person, a woman, an artist, and a mother. It ponders on what it means to tend—to a garden, to one another. [More here]

  3. La Nube en el Jardín – Ed Maverick (2024)
    A stirring, melancholy album that has been the soundtrack of the past 10 days. “no hay problema” in particular has been on loop while drafting this letter.

THAT’S ALL !

Thank you for reading TATI. I have more to share about my residency, including a limited-edition zine about offerings to the dead, but that will have to wait until I’m more settled and not catching flights. If interested, keep an eye out for the next letter—the zine is a limited run of 50. I was delighted to find out that IAGO had a riso workshop, La Maquinucha Ediciones, and I couldn’t resist making something.

With a heart in bloom,
Hady

Riso prints made at La Maquinucha Ediciones in Oaxaca, 2025.

 
Hady Barry